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

Google releases smart watch for kids

store.google.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 809 posts

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#181

Post by spondylosaurus »

qwerpy wrote: post #143
reaperducer wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kids don't need more tech, they need less of it (and FWIW, most adults, too). There was a "looking back" piece of WGN-TV last week about a 10-year-old and a 14-year-old who rode their horses from Missouri to New York City to meet Roosevelt. Alone. All they had with them was canteens, and a map. Then they bought a car with the money they raised along the way, and drove home to Missouri. Alone. Today you can't get an a…

> using a phone, a water bottle, or both as a pacifier I slowly put my phone down in shame after reading this. But I really love this sentence because of how true it is. Why is it always a phone and a water bottle?

Well, it sounds like those kids on their horses had canteens too...

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#183

Post by sharadov »

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…

Gave my 11 year old an apple watch, not so that I can track him, but just so that he can call me when he needs me ( there are times when he's at practice and am running late to pick him up or sometimes he just plain loses track of time because of his ADHD ).

And, he can set timers and alarms to keep track of his schedule.

My kids are pretty free-range, riding their bikes to/fro from school and hanging out at their friend's places.

I did not want a phone because it's way too distracting

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#184

Post by wilsonnb3 »

neilv wrote: post #112

How will this work out with grade school kids' socialization, when some kids in a class have the neat smartwatches, but some don't? I remember very much noticing as a young kid that I didn't have some things some other kids had. But most of the time that was at home, rather than visible every day. And I was also a bit aware that some other kids had less than I did. (Parochial school uniforms helped.)

I don't think it will change much, kids have been sorting themselves into pretend hierarchies based on the cool thing since the dawn of time.

We could send them all to school wearing a potato sack and some of the kids with the whole foods sack would make fun of the kids in the food lion sack.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#185

Post by krisoft »

enragedcacti wrote: post #162
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For better or for worse the ship has definitely sailed on the laissez-faire "be home before sunset" parenting of past generations. It's only "sailed" because (some) parents demand to know where their kid is at all times. While I think it's difficult for any individual parent to, say, forbid social media for too long lest they ostracize their kid, saying "I won't track my kids" is a choice any parent can make. I jus…

If only all social problems could be solved so easily. Theft? It only happens because (some) people keep stealing. They should just stop. In the absence of people just doing what I think is right instantly and without question, I pity the child whose parents solve this anxiety by trapping them in the house 16 hours a day.

I don’t understand your example. Theft is complicated to solve because the one stealing gets a benefit from doing it. To solve that you need to change the cost/benefit balance for everyone.

To solve the over anxious parent problem you just need to get up to two people to chill out. It provides an immediate benefit for them (they will be chill) while it also provides them a long term benefit (a well adjusted offspring).

What is the supposed paralel here? Or what should be my takeaway from your comparision be?

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#186

Post by wilsonnb3 »

m3kw9 wrote: post #131
gnicholas wrote: post #59

What's the benefit of this over a cheap LTE Apple Watch? I'm not an AW fanboy (Pebble/Garmin for me), but I had always anticipated getting my kid an LTE AW when the time came. It doesn't look like the pricing is much different, and for families with iPhones it would presumably be simpler to stay in the Apple ecosystem. Is there something I'm missing, or is this just for Android families? Regardless, I'm happy to see…

It’s an Android watch rebranded as kids version, add some restriction features. Apple has all of that already

It isn't an Android watch, fitbit has their own OS that works with both iOS and Android phones.

Only the Pixel watch uses android.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#187

Post by jahewson »

michaelt wrote: post #163
bitshiftfaced wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From skimming the page, it looks like it mainly just lets you know their location. Were there other more invasive features than that? Parents keeping tabs on where their kids are and who they're with is associated with positive outcomes like reduced drug use risks.

When I was young (several decades ago now, admittedly) parents couldn't track our locations. We largely turned out fine. To me, someone who wants to track their kid's location 24/7 in real time sounds rather anxious - unless their kid has a history of drug abuse.

Well, my parents could track my location by just asking other people in our village where I was, but that’s not quite the same.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#188

Post by slackfan »

rvnx wrote: post #57
tamimio wrote: post #41

If I have kids, I will never trust them with an evil and dangerous company like google, same goes for facebook too, the business model been and still exploiting, abusing, and selling users’ data. An open source alternative, both software and hardware would be ideal for kids, in the meantime, being a good and dedicated parent is the best strategy, and keep your eyes on your kids, tech isn’t needed.

It's privacy-protecting; their location will be private, only you can track them all the time, the apps installed, Google and their SREs, the US government if they want to (but they most likely need to ask), etc.

>Privacy Protecting

Words have meanings. And I don't think you know what they are. Google absolutely will be selling this location data to "improve the advertising experience".

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#189

Post by [deleted] »

gnicholas wrote: post #59

What's the benefit of this over a cheap LTE Apple Watch? I'm not an AW fanboy (Pebble/Garmin for me), but I had always anticipated getting my kid an LTE AW when the time came. It doesn't look like the pricing is much different, and for families with iPhones it would presumably be simpler to stay in the Apple ecosystem. Is there something I'm missing, or is this just for Android families? Regardless, I'm happy to see…

[deleted]

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#190

Post by Loughla »

TomJansen wrote: post #124
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 agree with this 1000%. Kids need to be free and explore things on their own. Why are we living in a world where we think that kids do not deserve privacy? Or where we think that we cannot trust our children?

It's less about the children and more about the adults.

Most parents that I know are scared that their children will be victims of violent crime. They may trust their kids explicitly and implicitly, but do not trust the world.

I blame 24 hour news, to be honest.

Post reply on HN