AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter • Hacker News Board

Re: AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

#121

Post by zpeti » Fri, Sep 25, 2020, 1:16 PM UTC

user5994461 wrote: post #116

wvenable wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of dinner time conversation revolves around stuff that any of us, including the kids, have read or seen online. A few months ago (while school was closed and we were quarantined), my son relayed to us all information about COVID-19 that he had come across online (likely via YouTube). I was expecting a bunch of misinformation but all of it was spot on! We've also talked about Flat Earthers. The other day we ende…

>>> The other day we ended up discussing why Wikipedia isn't allowed as source at school. Because Wikipedia has made obsolete all research tasks given by schools? One search and the wikipedia article will tell you everything there is to know about a subject.

Yeah, try searching for anything even mildly political, and see how much of "everything" there is to know you see about it.

Re: AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

#122

Post by LudwigNagasena » Fri, Sep 25, 2020, 2:40 PM UTC

pyman wrote: post #113

LudwigNagasena wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can download apps on Windows from anywhere and there is no sandboxing.

You are comparing tomatoes with potatoes. 1) Kids use the iPad/iPhone as gaming console, and 2) parents don't give their young kids a Dell laptop to play Talking Tom Cat. So your interpretation of the problem is not realistic and therefore incorrect.

Kids always played online browser games, flash games, downloadable games and similar stuff, and some of them still do. The only difference is that there is a higher probability now that technologically illiterate parents accidentally give their kid an access to their credit card.

Re: AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

#123

Post by wvenable » Fri, Sep 25, 2020, 5:16 PM UTC

pyman wrote: post #110

liontender wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has been absolutely fascinating to see my 3 year old interact with his grandparents as he "helps" them play Scrabble on their iPad. Together they decide to watch in-app ads; try installing some free-to-play game apps that seem like they might be amusing for an adult to show a child how they use; and otherwise explore the bounds of what you can do & learn on the modern walled-garden Internet. The grandparents are p…

Kids between 2 and 11 years old spend an average of 5/6 hours per day in front of a screen. And kids between 2 and 3 see an average of 25,600 ads a year. This article is not about restricting the use of mobile devices or parenting, it's about regulating the software industry. Parents don't want their kids to be exposed constantly to advertising on their day-to-day lives, or pressured into buying things all the time.…

My kid sees more ads now that he watches YouTube on his Switch but between 2 and 3 and I don't think he saw a single ad. We don't have cable (just streaming) and I always have browser ad blocking enabled. Even on mobile devices, I greatly dislike apps that have ads.

Re: AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

#124

Post by Jasper_ » Sat, Sep 26, 2020, 8:45 AM UTC

This is a bizarre comment, because Google and Apple themselves were the ones to heavily push for 99c / free apps. I worked at a high profile game developer attempting to make premium mobile games at the very start of the lifecycle; no microtransactions, just an up front cost. Google told us they were very, very unlikely to feature games that were above $5 in price.

Re: AppStore Reviews Should Be Stricter

#125

Post by Tainnor » Sat, Sep 26, 2020, 12:56 PM UTC

user5994461 wrote: post #118

Tainnor wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was a kid I found a very sketchy game on the teletext where you had to repeatedly call some phone line. My parents ended up with a 600 bucks phone bill. I also repeatedly fell for weird "order this set of dinosaur cards for free (but then it's an ongoing subscription)" kinds of scams. All of that stuff was annoying. And my parents ended up taking appropriate measures (blocking paid phone numbers, or just talki…

You were lucky that you parents were well off. There are many families what live paycheck to paycheck and wouldn't be able to feed the children after they lost 600 bucks in a phone scam.

sure, that's a valid point (although, in the worst case, we do have social security nets over here). the point is more that kids falling for scams is nothing new.