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Ask HN: How do you protect your children from internet addiction?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you protect your children from internet addiction?

#241

Post by hxugufjfjf »

bamboozled wrote: post #191
qzx_pierri wrote: post #17

The solution to this problem is actively parenting your kids. Take them on hikes, start a hobby with them, bond, etc. Letting the internet babysit your kids is the precursor to internet addiction. If you put in the work, then you won't have to worry.

But what if your kids start to prefer to stay home on the internet rather than go hiking, or skiing or whatever. So what do you do in this case?

The kid also prefers eating chocolate over potatoes. That doesn't mean we just give up potatoes and let them have chocolate.

Re: Ask HN: How do you protect your children from internet addiction?

#242

Post by comfypotato »

sowbug wrote: post #98

Parent of three ranging from tween to college age. We have never had limits on anything. Screen time/content unrestricted. Probably dozens of times, maybe hundreds, we have had "the talk" about how there's a lot of weird shit in the world, internet included, and it's better to know about that stuff and how to deal with it than to create a temporary secure enclave at home where it doesn't exist. We especially didn't w…

As a friendly counterpoint, my parents limited the time that I watched TV when I was young (mostly pre-ubiquitous-internet, so it probably implies limiting internet time somewhat). I’m just sharing my experience.

I got to pick what I watched and when; I just got 30 minutes or an hour a day. I mostly tried to catch the latest Dragon Ball Z episode.

The general strictness of my parents lead to severe rebellion, and that got me into all sorts of trouble (so it definitely wasn’t all a good thing). Now that I’ve matured a bit, I enjoy not having much of a TV habit (I find that I self-titrate internet content in a healthy way as well). I’m actually pretty grateful for the limits.

I don’t have kids, and I don’t know what I would do regarding this posted question, but I thought that I would share that I have very positive feelings concerning my parents’ decision to impose a limit on TV consumption time. I filled the rest of my time reading books, and that’s a very fulfilling time-sink to this day.

Also relevant: I think a lot of the streaming-video content available today (Netflix and others) has a lot more intrinsic value than most of the TV content when I was young. There are so many brilliant writers producing theses shows nowadays that my parents’ sentiment may not really apply to all the content. Even something like Cocomelon (we put it on in social settings if someone’s got their kids with them) is just better than Rugrats as far as providing entertaining wholesome/halfway-informative content.

Re: Ask HN: How do you protect your children from internet addiction?

#243

Post by hxugufjfjf »

gattanimell5 wrote: post #74
vz8 wrote: post #66

We changed DNS for all devices to use OpenDNS familyshield [0] for starters. It's a passive way to throttle some of the worst of the worst out there. Of course setting some limits on how much / how often helps a bit, and frank discussions about what too much of an addictive thing does to you. Our youngest is developmentally delayed and will absolutely ignore any guidelines and follow the path of least resistance / mo…

i hope some of your childrens manages to bypass family filters and starts his passion for the magical world of cybersecurity this way

That is my rule. Its better to ask for forgiveness than permission. So if you can hack it you can hack it without getting caught, its all yours.

Re: Ask HN: How do you protect your children from internet addiction?

#245

Post by wolongong942 »

dkqmduems wrote: post #142
theonething wrote: post #10

My kid's almost three. From day one, we've implemented a zero screen policy. That means no phones, tablets, computers, TV (don't own one), etc. We've read to her since day one and she loves books now and her spoken/listening language skills are way ahead for her age. Wife speaks to her in her native language so she's growing up bilingual too. Wife takes her to parks, mommy and me classes where they have story time, s…

I wonder if too much reading is a problem. We end up reading quite a few books throughout the day with our 3yo because they demand it. Offering a screen is only a weak distraction.

The advantage of books is you don't have an algo recommending you different things on every page. It's not uncommon for me to look up a 5 minute tutorial on YouTube to be stuck there for 1 hour+ due to the recommendations.

Re: Ask HN: How do you protect your children from internet addiction?

#246

Post by europeanguy »

_mme wrote: post #102
sowbug wrote: post #98

Parent of three ranging from tween to college age. We have never had limits on anything. Screen time/content unrestricted. Probably dozens of times, maybe hundreds, we have had "the talk" about how there's a lot of weird shit in the world, internet included, and it's better to know about that stuff and how to deal with it than to create a temporary secure enclave at home where it doesn't exist. We especially didn't w…

Amazing attitude. The mother of my kid and I are separated. I wanted to restrict content/screen time, but she gave him unrestricted access to his iPhone and now I feel it can't be undone. He's 13. I'm mostly worried about his attention span, especially when I watch him use his phone. But then again, maybe this is just a different generation and I must understand that his way of using the internet is different from mi…

Don't listen to him, he's not answering the question that was answered.

I'm sorry for your difficult situation. Phones killing attention span is real.

Re: Ask HN: How do you protect your children from internet addiction?

#247

Post by theGnuMe »

anon291 wrote: post #210
theGnuMe wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is your own attention span? I've watched old cartoon movies from the 80s and find them dull and boring but I remember them being my favorite at the time. I also have this other observation. If you really get into classical music, jazz and to some extent blues/bluegrass... modern pop songs just sound like crap and boring.

> If you really get into classical music, jazz and to some extent blues/bluegrass... modern pop songs just sound like crap and boring. I feel this might be a 'look at me I'm so smart thing'. I've enjoyed classical music and jazz and blues/bluegrass, and partake in playing all of those. I also enjoy pop music. There's nothing inherently bad about pop music. Like jazz and classical, it's based on a simple circle of fif…

My point was about novelty and simulation capturing attention. I find Pop music tends to be less complex and repetitive which is boring. Especially if listened to say bluegrass and then pop back to back.

Re: Ask HN: How do you protect your children from internet addiction?

#248

Post by temporary22 »

baron816 wrote: post #233
nvln wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This! Parenting is not a "Here is the rule, here is the consequence" job. Raising responsible humans requires, well, giving them responsibility, the opportunity for soft failures to learn from and having those awkward long talks and figuring out how to set healthy boundaries. The other part of the equation: The internet is an important aspect of the current generation's identity and culture. What seems like addiction…

> giving them responsibility I am not a parent, so maybe don't listen to me, but if I were (especially to boys), I would try to deeply instill a value of responsibility into them. Boys are naturally going to have a higher tolerance for risk, and that can be a very good thing, but it needs to be directed and they need to learn to differentiate good risks from bad ones. But more generally, building up an identity of be…

just a random thing: girls are more "responsible" because the societal bias is to teach women to be responsible from a young age.

from the perspective of a woman, I missed the possibility to make dumb mistakes because "responsibility" (and not even because my parents taught or encpuraged it, but from friends and family's pressure). Let your kids make dumb stuff and dumb mistakes, please.

Re: Ask HN: How do you protect your children from internet addiction?

#249

Post by MagicMoonlight »

I don’t know what I’m going to do when I have children. It’s scary how fucked up they’re becoming by being given ipads at 12 months old.

I want them to use technology but it needs to be controlled so that they aren’t overexposed to things before they’re ready.

I think I’m going to try and structure it so that they mirror my experience. Start off with simpler devices like consoles and basic programming. Wean them onto it so that they don’t start out with a billion terabytes of information and porn being fed into them before they can even read.

Re: Ask HN: How do you protect your children from internet addiction?

#250

Post by fullshark »

hxugufjfjf wrote: post #244
fullshark wrote: post #62

Every so often I see a post like this and think about the Bridge on the River Kwai.

Excellent movie, but how the hell is it relevant to this?

Engineers obsessed with craftsmanship ignoring its purpose
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