The kids with phones are alright • Hacker News Board

Re: The kids with phones are alright

#371

Post by ColdStream » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 12:31 AM UTC

graemep wrote: post #297

ColdStream wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a fair take. Yes the kids are particularly susceptible to these things but some equally concerning behavior comes from adults that one wished the knew better. Unfortunately, a lot of people run teenage software on adult hardware and that is a wild combo.

I am not even sure kids are more susceptible. Plenty of addicted adults.

More just a case of, kids are still learning from the world and can have a little less of a critical eye on these things. But like you said, adults haven't exactly used that critical eye themselves either.

Re: The kids with phones are alright

#372

Post by blt » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 2:04 AM UTC

GuB-42 wrote: post #366

jhbadger wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting - Github as social media? That's an idea of would never have thought of in a million years. Personally, I'd be glad if a child of mine hung out there - not at all like something like Instagram or Facebook.

I was also surprised, but it makes sense. It is based on user-generated content, it has a comment system, followers and stars (similar to "likes"). There is even an attention economy, and some gamification. Social media doesn't have to be bad, it just needs to be social.

github's original tagline was "Social Coding".

Re: The kids with phones are alright

#373

Post by marcus_holmes » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 2:46 AM UTC

iugtmkbdfil834 wrote: post #172

marcus_holmes wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What do we do when we know that social media it not healthy for kids. Its not good for their attention spans or mental health to a much greater degree than other forms of media. Do we know this? As far as I can tell, the studies are ambivalent at best. Some kids are damaged, others benefit.

Probably the same way we know most things. We know it affects us and we extrapolate.

And every generation thinks the tech that the next generation grows up with is harmful.

After all, novels were once considered harmful [0] but we now consider not being able to read a novel to be harmful.

[0] https://archive.nytimes.com/op-talk.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/0...

Re: The kids with phones are alright

#374

Post by krapp » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 3:06 AM UTC

bluecheese452 wrote: post #319

criddell wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you reconcile this idea with the fact that marijuana is being legalized all over the place?

1. Marijuana was not invented today. 2. Marijuana is not tobacco.

Tobacco wasn't "invented" any more than was marijuana, both are naturally occurring plants which have been cultivated and used for thousands of years.

Re: The kids with phones are alright

#375

Post by krapp » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 3:07 AM UTC

neutronicus wrote: post #291

jhbadger wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For starters, what's "social media"? It's kind of a undefinable phrase. Obviously Facebook and Instagram are agreed to be "social media".But is Youtube social media? How about HN? Or any website with a comment section?

I’d start with “platform on which it’s possible to become an Influencer” and work backwards.

So all platforms. Unless you have a definition of "influencer" more rigid than "person with some degree of influence." Because that includes Hacker News.

Re: The kids with phones are alright

#376

Post by krapp » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 3:20 AM UTC

krige wrote: post #262

m000 wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that the positive effects of Social Media is understated, and probably on purpose. Social Media allowed ordinary people to challenge on a global scale the oficially-sanctioned narrative. A generation has already grown with full distrust on what they learn from traditional media. With that picture, addressing the (undeniable) negative effects of Social Media is only the sales pitch for introducing new legislat…

> Social Media allowed ordinary people to challenge on a global scale the oficially-sanctioned narrative. Hasn't been true for a while. Now it grants people with money and state actors unprecedented control over what ordinary people are allowed to see and mold them to desired narratives.

It is still true. People with money and state actors have always had unprecedented control over what ordinary people are allowed to see... before the internet they were the ones controlling all of the corporate media. You don't think the press was molding people to desired narratives back then?

But it's obvious that social media also still allows grassroots action and organization in ways that simply weren't possible under old media. We need to be careful when talking about regulating or banning social media outright that we don't throw the baby out with the bathwater - we will be losing freedoms when we lose it and centralizing control of media and communication with governments and corporations (even more so than with the big social media silos now.) And freedoms lost aren't easily gained back.

Re: The kids with phones are alright

#377

Post by yogorenapan » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 4:32 AM UTC

fragmede wrote: post #164

yogorenapan wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got my first bug bounty at 16. Not having access to compute would've drastically changed the direction of my life. I wouldn't have been able to afford university & would likely be working on a farm right now like my cousins

Access to a desktop computer vs a smartphone that they bring to bed with TikTok on it are different though. What was your bug bounty for?

IOS and MacOS priv esc.

Yes I needed a smartphone to test on

Re: The kids with phones are alright

#378

Post by yogorenapan » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 4:33 AM UTC

theamk wrote: post #323

NeutralCrane wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well they didn’t say 16 years olds should not having access to compute so your point is irrelevant.

Pretty sure that to get a bug bounty one needs to study things first, and this takes quite a bit of time.

Yup. I started learning at 10 mostly messing about with modding and dumb script kiddie stuff. You don't just get a computer one day and get an exploit out the next

Re: The kids with phones are alright

#379

Post by fragmede » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 4:44 AM UTC

yogorenapan wrote: post #377

fragmede wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Access to a desktop computer vs a smartphone that they bring to bed with TikTok on it are different though. What was your bug bounty for?

IOS and MacOS priv esc. Yes I needed a smartphone to test on

That's awesome! Testing on, with a non-zero amount of adult supervision isn't the same thing as being given a phone with Snapchat and TikTok to take to bed at night though. I'm open to setting it to a different age. I didn't do a ton of research before picking 16. But also it's not like I'm actually in charge of anything either.

Re: The kids with phones are alright

#380

Post by anon291 » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 5:14 AM UTC

gib444 wrote: post #365

anon291 wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What mortal danger would necessitate a smart phone versus a dumb phone? I don't understand

It's the live GPS tracking they want. Kidnapping?

Unless you're divorced or super rich there's basically no reason to worry about kidnapping.