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> Somewhere along the way I feel it became normal to just let your children do whatever they want online with no supervision and no parental controls. I got ha
by devbent 3y ago
> Somewhere along the way I feel it became normal to just let your children do whatever they want online with no supervision and no parental controls.
I got handed a modem at age 9 and I started dialing into local BBSs.
I learned how to use paragraphs because I got made fun of for posting giant blocks of text.
The reason I wasn't using paragraphs initially is that they hadn't been taught to me yet in school.
A couple of years later I got on to the Internet proper.
In many ways it was wonderful. The optimism, the feeling that something amazing was happening. The hope that once everyone could talk to each other that a new era of global understanding could be reached.
At the age of 13 I was able to go on technical forums and if I put enough thought into what I said, my ideas were considered to be of no lesser or greater worth than the ideas put forth by others.
Although, back then the Internet was a bit more mature on average so I felt that I needed to at least try and put thought into what I said. (Not saying I always succeeded...)
> And parents must make sure to only let their kids use child accounts.
Or how about, when someone under 18 is using a computer, every hour a giant message appears on the screen "DON'T SEND NUDES TO ANYONE. NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY. PS: ALSO DON'T BUY GIFT CARDS FOR ANYONE ONLINE."
That'd probably solve 60% of problems that underage users get into.
Jokes aside, I get it. The Internet is a worse place than when I first joined. But I'm more scared of kids running into curated video feeds that lead them down paths of extremism (e.g. red pill, gamergate) than I am of pedophiles.