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When you shelter your children from the world to an extreme degree, you end up getting one of the most popular stories in both Europe and Asia for the last 2500

by ewzimm 1y ago

When you shelter your children from the world to an extreme degree, you end up getting one of the most popular stories in both Europe and Asia for the last 2500 years: https://theconversation.com/how-the-buddha-became-a-christian-saint-142285 https://theconversation.com/how-the-buddha-became-a-christia...

timewizard 1y ago
Or an axe murderer. Hard to predict which one you'll have.
theGnuMe 1y ago
I'm hoping my kids become digital buddhas. :) More seriously I hope they learn that online is not better than IRL. But that means giving them IRL experiences in addition to roblox. yet here I am posting on Hacker News... I did have the neighbors over though for dinner the other day. I think a good thing parents can do is have dinner parties. Show kids how to be social.
- ewzimm 1y ago
  But dinner parties mean time away from Roblox and YouTube! I know this struggle, especially in winter. I think kids still want to socialize but struggle more often these days with how to do it. It’s easier for many of them to do it online when they can leave a situation at any time they want, and it’s hard to adapt to the pressure of being stuck in a social situation. What used to be “rage quitting” in games seems to be normal now. Maybe kids just need to learn more about the art of the excuse to leave.
  - kjreact 1y ago
    Why do responsible parents even allow their kids to play Roblox? Roblox is plagued by freemium style gambling games that are harmful to children. I’m interested to hear from HN parents why they feel Roblox is a safe environment for their kids. For further reading: https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2025/03/24/literally-just-child-gambling-study-urges-swift-regulation-of-roblox.html https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2025/03/24/liter...
    - theGnuMe 1y ago
      It is a good question. YouTube is a similar phenomenon. Below that would be cable tv. Everything has been hyper optimized for attention/dopamine reward. There are some folks who seem to only let kids watch old movies and old shows on DVD. Also most kids are in school in person which may help mitigate the brain rot.
      - kjreact 1y ago
        YouTube is another dangerous vehicle for toxic ideology affecting our children. If you’re not careful with censoring the algorithm it is very easy to fall into a self reinforcing loop of disinformation. And even after blocking a bad channel new ones sprout up daily like weeds. Parenting today has become very challenging.
    - ewzimm 1y ago
      It's the networking effect. When all the other kids are playing a game, it's tough for some kids to be the only one not on it. Then it becomes one of their primary means of socializing. To a lot of kids, there are only two games in the universe: Roblox and Fortnite. That's all any of their peers play. They're not in getting into other ones where their friends aren't. It's the same as social networks. Whether it's irresponsible to let kids play the same games as their friends is of course up to individual parents. I think it's possible to both be exposed to these types of traps and learn how to avoid them. They can't gamble without access to money from parents anyway.
      - kjreact 1y ago
        Thank you for the thoughtful response. I too have struggled with fighting these network effects. And I am disheartened to see so many parents who just blindly let their children play these harmful games. Then parents like us, who do see the negatives, feel forced to let our children play so that they don’t become ostracised from their social groups. Fortnite is another excellent example of introducing gambling to minors with their sales of loot boxes, which the FTC has fined for $245M. Recently one of my children asked to play Genshin Impact because their classmates were all hooked on the game. I was firm in saying that I did not want my children to play gacha games which were designed to fool players into gambling on loot boxes and paying to win. Instead I tried to get them to switch to another game without these poisonous mechanics. I’ve always been hesitant to be too forceful in getting children off these bad game platforms because I didn’t want to be labeled as the bad parent who took away their fun and in turn causing issues for my children at school. But I think my new strategy is just to buy their friends games to play that I feel are more constructive such as Minecraft instead of playing freemium mobile games. I just hope more parents become aware of the negative and addictive aspects that these games pose to children. I strongly believe that one day we will look back at this industry and it will be compared to the tobacco industry and the harm it caused.

by ewzimm 1y ago

timewizard 1y ago

Or an axe murderer. Hard to predict which one you'll have.

theGnuMe 1y ago

I'm hoping my kids become digital buddhas. :) More seriously I hope they learn that online is not better than IRL. But that means giving them IRL experiences in addition to roblox. yet here I am posting on Hacker News... I did have the neighbors over though for dinner the other day. I think a good thing parents can do is have dinner parties. Show kids how to be social.

ewzimm 1y ago
But dinner parties mean time away from Roblox and YouTube! I know this struggle, especially in winter. I think kids still want to socialize but struggle more often these days with how to do it. It’s easier for many of them to do it online when they can leave a situation at any time they want, and it’s hard to adapt to the pressure of being stuck in a social situation. What used to be “rage quitting” in games seems to be normal now. Maybe kids just need to learn more about the art of the excuse to leave.
- kjreact 1y ago
  Why do responsible parents even allow their kids to play Roblox? Roblox is plagued by freemium style gambling games that are harmful to children. I’m interested to hear from HN parents why they feel Roblox is a safe environment for their kids. For further reading: https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2025/03/24/literally-just-child-gambling-study-urges-swift-regulation-of-roblox.html https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2025/03/24/liter...
  - theGnuMe 1y ago
    It is a good question. YouTube is a similar phenomenon. Below that would be cable tv. Everything has been hyper optimized for attention/dopamine reward. There are some folks who seem to only let kids watch old movies and old shows on DVD. Also most kids are in school in person which may help mitigate the brain rot.
    - kjreact 1y ago
      YouTube is another dangerous vehicle for toxic ideology affecting our children. If you’re not careful with censoring the algorithm it is very easy to fall into a self reinforcing loop of disinformation. And even after blocking a bad channel new ones sprout up daily like weeds. Parenting today has become very challenging.
  - ewzimm 1y ago
    It's the networking effect. When all the other kids are playing a game, it's tough for some kids to be the only one not on it. Then it becomes one of their primary means of socializing. To a lot of kids, there are only two games in the universe: Roblox and Fortnite. That's all any of their peers play. They're not in getting into other ones where their friends aren't. It's the same as social networks. Whether it's irresponsible to let kids play the same games as their friends is of course up to individual parents. I think it's possible to both be exposed to these types of traps and learn how to avoid them. They can't gamble without access to money from parents anyway.
    - kjreact 1y ago
      Thank you for the thoughtful response. I too have struggled with fighting these network effects. And I am disheartened to see so many parents who just blindly let their children play these harmful games. Then parents like us, who do see the negatives, feel forced to let our children play so that they don’t become ostracised from their social groups. Fortnite is another excellent example of introducing gambling to minors with their sales of loot boxes, which the FTC has fined for $245M. Recently one of my children asked to play Genshin Impact because their classmates were all hooked on the game. I was firm in saying that I did not want my children to play gacha games which were designed to fool players into gambling on loot boxes and paying to win. Instead I tried to get them to switch to another game without these poisonous mechanics. I’ve always been hesitant to be too forceful in getting children off these bad game platforms because I didn’t want to be labeled as the bad parent who took away their fun and in turn causing issues for my children at school. But I think my new strategy is just to buy their friends games to play that I feel are more constructive such as Minecraft instead of playing freemium mobile games. I just hope more parents become aware of the negative and addictive aspects that these games pose to children. I strongly believe that one day we will look back at this industry and it will be compared to the tobacco industry and the harm it caused.