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Google releases smart watch for kids

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Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#291

Post by liotier »

dvhh wrote: post #282
iteria wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a choice a parent can make until someone calls the cops because your kid is unattended. I've had people give me you're an awful parent side eyes for not keeping my eyes on my kid 100% of the time in a fenced in park. Letting my kid walk to school like I did as a kid is just forever outside of my reach if I want to not have CPS called on me. At least if I geotag my kid with someone obvious people will be chill ab…

Exactly,I feel that some parents will be judged by their peers if they are not keeping a short leash on their children. And because people are encouraged to look at any sign of child neglect (for some reason), dirty clothes or bruise that could be acquired during play, could be easily misconstrued as child abuse.

I have been often judged harshly for not subscribing to parental paranoia and refusing to breach trust with constant surveillance. I stand by my choice: surveillance harms trust, children need space and safety is good enough. I'm way too old to be sensitive to the opinion of other parents !

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#292

Post by ksenzee »

School-Cotton wrote: post #264
philomath_mn wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly -- but we're looking at a smartwatch to give our 7 y.o. _more_ freedom. If he has a way to call home and we can check on his location, I'm much more likely to set him loose in the neighborhood. Something for us to think about, though.

What stops you from giving him freedom even without a smartphone?

In the US, the biggest danger to free-range kids is nosy neighbors, who are convinced kids out wandering alone are in danger of… something! Kidnapping? Sex trafficking? Darned if I know. But it’s a huge problem to those of us who want our kids to be free to walk to the corner store. My kid had a woman call the police on him at age 7, in a safe suburban neighborhood, when she wasn’t satisfied with his answers about why he was out alone. Having a phone would have helped: he could have called me right then. (As it is, he ran away before they got there, and I still chuckle wondering what the cops thought about the whole thing.)

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#293

Post by kimmeld »

akira2501 wrote: post #243
thinkingkong wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its weird the types of sacrifices we expect kids to make with regards to survival. Like when a school shooting happens we wouldnt event consider banning assault rifles. Those kids dont survive. But if having a tracker on your kid marginally increases their chance for survival in the rarest of circumstances it’s totally out of the question to not have it.

It's weird to think as a society that we can build a walled garden around human nature. Mentally unwell people who attack schools will use other weapons if you somehow take all the "assault" rifles away and we've seen this in other countries who have tried it. When a school shooting happens we don't talk about psychiatric medication or prescribing practices for them. The #3 cause of death is "accidental self inflicte…

Other countries don’t have the bodycount of dead children like the USA. If anything it proves that less guns makes you safer.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27No_Way_to_Prevent_This,%2...

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#294

Post by justsomehnguy »

Fricken wrote: post #242
candiddevmike wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The South Park episode Not Suitable for Children touches on this a lot too. Companies are foaming at the mouths to get advertising in front of kids and tracking them to understand what their habits are is really gross.

I remember the 80s when Saturday morning cartoons were a long series of toy commercials interspersed with shorter toy commercials. I got to be the target demographic. It was the best!

It doesn't changed at all, at least where I saw it last year. Paw Patrol was (is?) still the rage.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#295

Post by CostcoFanboy »

stickfigure wrote: post #193
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #106

Ugh, I threw up a little in my mouth just from the headline. This constant tracking of kids is unnecessary and dangerous. Generations of kids survived without their parents needing to know their location at all times. And yes, I totally admit, some kids (very few actually depending on the locale) didn't survive. But we've traded this false sense of "safety" for kids that are so risk averse it is seriously negatively…

I can only guess you (and most of the other naysayers in this thread) don't have young children. My wife and I have been looking for something exactly like this for our 6yo. I lost him on a ski slope once over a year ago and I think he's still traumatized. He recently was afraid of going on a class trip because he was afraid of getting lost. This isn't for teenagers. It's for kids that are still attached to mama/papa…

> I remember many times as a kid having my parents call out on the PA system when I got lost in a department store.

How many times can you lose a child before it stops being accidental? It's a department store not Disney Land.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#297

Post by locococo »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #272
locococo wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parents have a lot to contend with as it is. Making live easier by preventing the temporary loss of a child and the anxiety for both parties is a benefit. If anything this gives kids more freedom, anyone not understand this should have a set of kids first.

Learning how to deal with anxiety in limited doses is an important part of childhood too. > If anything this gives kids more freedom I hope you're not too optimistic there. If it lets kids roam around outside more, than the upsides massively outweigh the downsides. But that's a very big "if".

I am speaking from experience as a father of two. The watch teaches the kids to reach out when they feel overwhelmed. They are fully in control of their own destiny. They don't always end up where they planned they were going and that is perfectly ok for me because they can reach me if there is an issue.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#298

Post by GuB-42 »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #106

Ugh, I threw up a little in my mouth just from the headline. This constant tracking of kids is unnecessary and dangerous. Generations of kids survived without their parents needing to know their location at all times. And yes, I totally admit, some kids (very few actually depending on the locale) didn't survive. But we've traded this false sense of "safety" for kids that are so risk averse it is seriously negatively…

But it can be seen the other way.

Tracking can give kids more freedom, because you can let them roam where they could get lost. For example, you can take them on vacation in a safe but unfamiliar place and let them do as they want. If they get lost, just use the tracker to find them. You don't even need to go for them immediately, you can let them try to figure it out by themselves and only go if it becomes really problematic. What would have been an unacceptable risk without a tracker becomes possible.

When I was a kid, my parents would have given a lot for such a tracker as I had the uncanny ability to lose them in the most remote places. highlights include central London (not my country, didn't speak English) and in a forest on a mountain with a thunderstorm approaching. I survived, but maybe a tracker could have saved my parents some sanity, they still talk to me about it, more than 30 years later.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#299

Post by daedrdev »

sangupta wrote: post #214
stickfigure wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can only guess you (and most of the other naysayers in this thread) don't have young children. My wife and I have been looking for something exactly like this for our 6yo. I lost him on a ski slope once over a year ago and I think he's still traumatized. He recently was afraid of going on a class trip because he was afraid of getting lost. This isn't for teenagers. It's for kids that are still attached to mama/papa…

Exactly what I came to say. I need something for my daughter to connect with and/or track her while playing with her friends outside. It is difficult to always be on her lookout, and any other watch tracks them more. I need control to see who they are talking to, chatting with, what apps they use, and controlling screen time. Few kids in her class are already on IG/Tiktok courtesy their elder siblings and I do not wa…

> I need control to see who they are talking to, chatting with, what apps they use, and controlling screen time.

I'm just some random on the internet, but this rubs me the wrong way. Trust is important in relationships, and this doesn't show any trust. Some of this is perfectly fine, but tracking their chatting is an invasion of privacy unless you have a specific reason to be worried.

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