Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Parental controls aren't for parents

beasthacker.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 476 posts

Re: Parental controls aren't for parents

#281

Post by hulitu »

basket_horse wrote: post #118
dosman33 wrote: post #29

It's not an accident that its so hard to get this stuff right, I've heard countless stories like this from friends who are parents. If the market wanted parents to be able to figure this out it would be getting it right. It's obviously a dark pattern that benefits everyone but the parents and their children. If more people stopped to think deeper about this they would and should be very disturbed by what this means.

I disagree. I think it is an “accident” that stems from organizations rather than anything sinister. Companies generally want good parental controls, but let’s face it, it’s not the cash cow or particularly interesting. This leads to understaffed teams of b-list developers with high churn, hence the overly confusing and half-baked features.

> Companies generally want good parental controls

Yeah, like Microsoft requesting that Firefox shall be (parentally) reviewed, while Edge happilly could connect to internet. Fixed by creating a local account.

Re: Parental controls aren't for parents

#282

Post by fpauser »

basket_horse wrote: post #118
dosman33 wrote: post #29

It's not an accident that its so hard to get this stuff right, I've heard countless stories like this from friends who are parents. If the market wanted parents to be able to figure this out it would be getting it right. It's obviously a dark pattern that benefits everyone but the parents and their children. If more people stopped to think deeper about this they would and should be very disturbed by what this means.

I disagree. I think it is an “accident” that stems from organizations rather than anything sinister. Companies generally want good parental controls, but let’s face it, it’s not the cash cow or particularly interesting. This leads to understaffed teams of b-list developers with high churn, hence the overly confusing and half-baked features.

> Companies generally want good parental controls

Nope, parental controls are fucked up since ages. And this is by design, and not because of some "b-list developers".

Re: Parental controls aren't for parents

#283

Post by DebugDruid »

micromacrofoot wrote: post #161
fn-mote wrote: post #63

Dear All, As you post, please be clear what age range child you are discussing. There are a lot of posts here advocating strategies that make sense for a 10 year old but are ridiculous for a 15 year old. Remember: once the children have friends with unrestricted cell phones (essentially all 14+ year olds in the us), there are many many more options for them to go online. Also, I got my start as a “hacker” gaming, che…

and I was groomed and raped at age 13 because I had unfettered access to AOL chat rooms caution is necessary and kids can learn plenty without unrestricted access I personally would have been better off without internet access, no knowledge of hex dumps would have been worth it. It's a little upsetting that you're using that as an example of why kids should have more permissive access.

You blame unfettered access to AOL chat, I blame your parents for giving you internet access and not teaching you to never share your real name or real address online. Mine taught me that early on. Later, I learned about proxies so I could further hide my approximate IP location from danger.

Re: Parental controls aren't for parents

#284

Post by NooneAtAll3 »

dTal wrote: post #275
BeetleB wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because I too use the XBox. And because there are definitely benefits of Internet access. Saved games, for example. But yeah, fair point. I should configure router to selectively enable/disable access to that device while the kid uses it to see how usable it is. It may just be good enough for his games

You can't even save games without an internet connection? sheesh...

people can't even listen to music without internet, so this isn't surprising xD

Re: Parental controls aren't for parents

#285

Post by nine_k »

alembic_fumes wrote: post #69

This pervasive desire to block, protect, monitor, and control your children's online activities through nebulous supervision tools seems like a particularly American solution to a particularly American problem. Much like how little Timmy simply can't go out to play without a GPS anklet and an air tag behind each ear, so too can't he go online without a supervised account on a supervised device on a supervised connect…

Honest question: are you a parent?

My daughter, when she was 6 or 7, was terrified by certain things she accidentally found on YouTube, and asked me to have them filtered out. At 13, she already didn't need that, of course, but the notion of "kids" includes "small kids", who definitely should not be exposed to everything the Internet has to offer, or let to go out unsupervised.

Re: Parental controls aren't for parents

#286

Post by ceayo »

I am opposed to the whole concept of these "parental controls". Instead of a bond of trust, between a parent and their child, the surveillance economy has gave us the ability to experience the top of the surveillance pyramid ourselves. As Google and Meta spy on the world, we spy on little Timmy. In fact, you are a bad parent if you don't spy on little Timmy. I really can't wrap my head around how asking "how was your day" has evolved into "I saw on your GPS tracker you walked a different route to school today... Do you have something to tell me?" If you look at everyone who is now joining the work force and all, the coming generations, you'll see the thing they lack most is independence.

Re: Parental controls aren't for parents

#287

Post by soulofmischief »

chaps wrote: post #261
BeetleB wrote: post #172

Just recently did this with XBox. I cannot prevent the kid from seeing the marketplace. I cannot prevent the kid from seeing installed games that are rated Mature. It won't let them play it, but it lists all the games installed in the XBox. I cannot prevent them from downloading free stuff. It was frustrating and clear to me that this wasn't designed for the benefits of parents. I just want it to act like a console w…

Question: why do you give the device access to the internet?

An increasing number of games are requiring always-online or online-on-boot validation, so this option is becoming less reasonable.

Re: Parental controls aren't for parents

#288

Post by [deleted] »

ceayo wrote: post #286

I am opposed to the whole concept of these "parental controls". Instead of a bond of trust, between a parent and their child, the surveillance economy has gave us the ability to experience the top of the surveillance pyramid ourselves. As Google and Meta spy on the world, we spy on little Timmy. In fact, you are a bad parent if you don't spy on little Timmy. I really can't wrap my head around how asking "how was your…

[deleted]

Re: Parental controls aren't for parents

#289

Post by fpauser »

alembic_fumes wrote: post #69

This pervasive desire to block, protect, monitor, and control your children's online activities through nebulous supervision tools seems like a particularly American solution to a particularly American problem. Much like how little Timmy simply can't go out to play without a GPS anklet and an air tag behind each ear, so too can't he go online without a supervised account on a supervised device on a supervised connect…

Young kids exposed to overly attracting games cannot limit these activities by themselves. This has nothing to do with a lack of explanation, but rather with how the brains of young kids function. Thus, accessible parental controls with a simple mechanism that limits the access to games, blocks ads, disables marketplace access and sets a maximum gaming time per day are a much-needed tool that parents should have in their hands.

Re: Parental controls aren't for parents

#290

Post by jopsen »

spicyusername wrote: post #24

This is such a sore spot for me. Technology is amazing and I want to raise my children in such a way that they learn to use it to improve and enrich their lives. Video games are amazing. Art has never been easier to create. Being able to spend time with your friends when they are not physically present is incredible. There are so many great podcasts for children. But silicon valley seems directly opposed to enabling…

As a kid I always hated it when parents/schools locked things down. Getting free of the parental controls becomes a game.

So I've never imagined myself wanting to do parental controls. But I might change my mind when my kid is old enough to play with screens.

Post reply on HN