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Debit card apps for kids are collecting a shocking amount of personal data

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Re: Debit card apps for kids are collecting a shocking amount of personal data

#111

Post by nix23 »

Shikadi wrote: post #107
jonheller wrote: post #72

My son has a Greenlight card. It's been fantastic for helping him understand allowance, savings, charity in a more modern age than when I used to get cash I put in an envelope with a table on the front. It's taught him about interest and he's able to see quick results (especially when I started his savings account at something crazy like a 500% interest rate to encourage him). As others have mentioned, cash is near u…

500% interest rate O.o that might just set unrealistic expectations when for so long interest rates have been at _best_ 2% on a savings account

On his saving account, i think that's a pretty good motivation to save money then to use a debit card...i thinks it's a great idea.

Re: Debit card apps for kids are collecting a shocking amount of personal data

#112

Post by leetcrew »

swiley wrote: post #108
jonheller wrote: post #72

My son has a Greenlight card. It's been fantastic for helping him understand allowance, savings, charity in a more modern age than when I used to get cash I put in an envelope with a table on the front. It's taught him about interest and he's able to see quick results (especially when I started his savings account at something crazy like a 500% interest rate to encourage him). As others have mentioned, cash is near u…

>but cash is also near useless for me. Did your bank/ATM stop accepting it? Do you never settle debts with your friends?

> Did your bank/ATM stop accepting it?

not OP, but my bank literally does not accept cash deposits at its branches, nor does it operate any ATMs. I'm pretty sure I could deposit cash at a 3rd party ATM, but I've never tested that. anyway, I only visit an ATM a few times a year on the rare occasion that I do business with someone who only accepts cash.

> Do you never settle debts with your friends?

all the time, with venmo.

I do understand an respect the privacy argument for cash. but in most cases, it's not worth the inconvenience or sacrificing the 3-5% cashback I get on most purchases.

Re: Debit card apps for kids are collecting a shocking amount of personal data

#113

Post by maximus-decimus »

markzzerella wrote: post #94
jenkstom wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing you aren't a parent. How else can they buy those Fortnite skins? Robux? Minecoins?

If my kid isn't as offended by that stuff as I was when Bethesda rolled out horse armor as paid dlc then I raised them wrong.

Lol, the art of milking people has been perfected since then. You kid also won't have the same expectations as you of not paying for dlcs since that's just not the world they're gonna have grown in.

Hell, even car companies are trying their best to turn cars into a subscription service.

Re: Debit card apps for kids are collecting a shocking amount of personal data

#114

Post by helloworld11 »

leetcrew wrote: post #112
swiley wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but cash is also near useless for me. Did your bank/ATM stop accepting it? Do you never settle debts with your friends?

> Did your bank/ATM stop accepting it? not OP, but my bank literally does not accept cash deposits at its branches, nor does it operate any ATMs. I'm pretty sure I could deposit cash at a 3rd party ATM, but I've never tested that. anyway, I only visit an ATM a few times a year on the rare occasion that I do business with someone who only accepts cash. > Do you never settle debts with your friends? all the time, with…

And here we have one more example of how our world is turning into an utterly dystopian shit hole of total always-on surveillance. But hey! Never mind all that and its implications. Gotta have that convenience, and of course, that sweet, sweet 3-5% cashback thing... So much better than a modicum of privacy in the intimate details of a daily life.

God help us if a truly authoritarian Hitler or Stalinist-type regime creeps into power in a large western country. They won't need to build surveillance structures at all. Everything will already be firmly in place thanks to increments of "convenience".

Re: Debit card apps for kids are collecting a shocking amount of personal data

#115

Post by handrous »

nkrisc wrote: post #37
Filligree wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s a bit of a difference between not getting candy, and not having any friends. You’re doing your kid no favours if you think that’s a plus.

If those kids are actually their friends, they’ll make it work.

I'm very anti-technology for software dev, especially for kids, and pro "who cares, the kid can get over it, they'll be fine" in general, but that's a recipe for going to the wrong place at the wrong time to meet up when your close friends remember to CC you but then others on the thread modify the arrangements and everyone forgets that they have to send you your own, special message to let you know. And having that happen enough times that people get uncomfortable even notifying you in the first place, and annoyed at having to go out of their way to account for your (to them) pointless quirk.

Re: Debit card apps for kids are collecting a shocking amount of personal data

#116

Post by rightbyte »

nix23 wrote: post #111
Shikadi wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

500% interest rate O.o that might just set unrealistic expectations when for so long interest rates have been at _best_ 2% on a savings account

On his saving account, i think that's a pretty good motivation to save money then to use a debit card...i thinks it's a great idea.

I think I will borrow your idea. That is about 3% per week.

Re: Debit card apps for kids are collecting a shocking amount of personal data

#117

Post by handrous »

leetcrew wrote: post #69
weimerica wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Technology is even more necessary for social activity than when we were young. Oddly, my own children do not have that same issue. In a world of billions, there are no universal claims like this.

just curious, how old are you children? you mentioned having a toddler further up. it makes sense that most social activities are planned by the parents anyway at that age. I remember things starting to change in middle school. kids started making same-day plans for after school and shooting their parents a quick text to say where they were going. I tried using the school's phone a few times when I was invited, but t…

Some of my daughter's second grade friends already have personal cell phones.

I am (very) reliably informed that at one nearby school with 6th-8th grade, almost every kid, even the ones from very poor or unstable families, has a cell phone. The tipping point for "over half of my classmates have cell phones" seems to be in the 3rd-5th grade range.

The schools let them carry them around all day, too, which is very confusing to me. They're not supposed to use them, but they do all the time, and teachers/admin are reluctant to confiscate them on more than a "you can have this back at the end of the day" basis (and usually not even that), because parents freak the fuck out if you hold on to their kids' phone overnight, no matter what (and, with limits only way at the extreme end, I really mean "no matter what") they were doing with it.

Re: Debit card apps for kids are collecting a shocking amount of personal data

#118

Post by Peanuts99 »

jasonladuke0311 wrote: post #66
TuringNYC wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> If I had a kid they would not be allowed to use Apps or have a Google account. In our school district (Arlington Public Schools in Virginia), children get assigned Google GSuite accounts by default starting in Kindergarten. They are used for a variety of things, including authentication to multiple school apps.

Yeah, and our last school district pushed GPOs to my son's personal Chromebook. Really pissed me off. I was trying to help him troubleshoot an issue and dev tools were disabled and greyed out in the chrome settings. When we switched back to his personal account they were back.

I don't agree that kids should have dev tools disabled because that just seems counter productive but the school manages the accounts and has a responsibility over student safeguarding. I'd be concerned if they weren't enforcing policies on students accounts.

Re: Debit card apps for kids are collecting a shocking amount of personal data

#119

Post by watwut »

basisword wrote: post #36
watwut wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole point of pocket money is that it is theirs and you dont gatekeep every buy. And kids can go to store without babysitter.

1. Not “gatekeeping” their decision. They just might have to wait a few hours before they can carry it out. 2. I’m not sure of your point here. I meant if the parent wasn’t around to provide the cash the kid might have to wait until they are around. Not that they need someone to take them to the store (although this is highly dependent on where you live and the age of the kid).

1. If they have to get me for each buy, I have power to gatekeep. And they need to report to me every buy by design. It is clearly not the same thing, it is clearly less practical.

It is completely different then having own money - which in fact allow all of us to pay when we want what we want as long as we have money.

Nobody is saying kids will die if they dont have own card. They wont die if they dont have books or toy cars either. But it makes perfect sense for familly to want those things, no matter how much people yell on clouds about kids not living as if it was 1836.

2. The point was to respond to babysitter assumption to make clear what I mean .

Re: Debit card apps for kids are collecting a shocking amount of personal data

#120

Post by watwut »

skeeter2020 wrote: post #78
ryanlol wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this some weird american thing where kids can’t go outside by themselves? Maybe your kid went to hang out with some friends after school, asks for money to go to the cinema or just to get some food? Why would you go out of your way to make your life difficult by avoiding debit cards?

I'm struggling to help my kids (teen through < 10) understand the value representation of money. It helps to covet a physical item, even if it's just a piece of plastic/paper. Money is hard to undestand when you don't work like a dog to earn very little of it, so this is even harder for kids.

My kids got this through pocket money and being or not being able to buy stuff. "I need 6$ to buy that and have only 3$" is how they got it. We moved on virtual money fairly fast.

> Money is hard to undestand when you don't work like a dog to earn very little of it, so this is even harder for kids.

It is not? If you role model financial decisions in front of them where they see, they pick yout habits.

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