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Google releases smart watch for kids

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Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#261

Post by locococo »

swatcoder wrote: post #141
wepple wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Generations of kids survived without their parents needing to know their location at all times. And cars used to be safe even without seatbelts! It turns out times change. Before you think I’m disagreeing with the entirety of your comment, my own kids are the most free-range in-the-dirt kids I know. But it’s location-dependent. I trust cities and their people far less than wild animals.

The purpose of cars is to get people from place to place. That purpose isn't hampered by wearing a seatbelt. There's not even a compromise involved. It's all upside. The purpose of childhood is produce future adults . That purpose isn't fully served when kids get too far removed from choices, risks, and consequences. Yes, we also need to make sure they stay alive, but survival can't be the only metric parents optimiz…

What are you smoking? No choice is removed from anyone. Survival is the primary objective, what do you think it is? Limiting electronic device usage?

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#262

Post by jmacd »

sharadov wrote: post #97
wmf wrote: post #3

Smartwatches may be an overlooked answer to the kid phone conundrum. Watches have the communication and location tracking that parents demand without the distraction of phones.

I got an Apple watch for my 11-year-old for precisely this reason - he can text, call, and play some games on it. Subscription to cellular is $10/month. And it let me set parental controls on it. No way was I getting him a phone, it's already way too distracting with the other devices he has access to at home.

I also have an 11 year old with an Apple Watch and it has been such a good introduction to connectivity as well as social media (iMessage/texting...)

She has gained a lot of independance because we are able to track her with the watch, and she is now proactively communicating with it to let us know where she will be etc.

I'm not enthusiastic about the teen years with TikTok/Instagram,etc but at least she will have been onramped gradually and hopefully it's a natural progression.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#263

Post by School-Cotton »

pohuing wrote: post #176
pavel_lishin wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flip that around. My child has more freedom now, because I can let her walk further from home, unsupervised, to see if a friend can play - because she can immediately text me and let me know she's staying at the friend's house for the next few hours. She no longer has to wait for me to be ready to walk with her. She can text me if she wants to be picked up from aftercare early. Or if she wants to stay later. Or if sh…

I simply called using the landline back in the day, but I grew up in a small village in Germany where roaming the fields unsupervised was the norm.

I don’t know anyone in the U.S. who still has a landline.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#264

Post by School-Cotton »

philomath_mn wrote: post #60
quaintdev wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then when they finally break free they don't have any feedback mechanism that they had since childhood. This can go both ways. They might turn out to be model citizen or your worst nightmare. People raised children for 1000s of years without any technology. I bet we can do that too.

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?

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#265

Post by locococo »

faeriechangling wrote: post #227
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 was about 3 years ahead of my peers in spatial reasoning and behind them socially. When I was a kid leaving me alone meant I was likely to wander long distances end up in a pool and drown. If anything I see this as enabling parents to keep their kids on a longer leash so to speak.

this is exactly the case. Kids gain more freedom not less

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#266

Post by locococo »

mateus1 wrote: post #172
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 don’t buy that tracking kids is necessary or increases their safety. This seems to be an American phenomenon.

I grew up in europe, and I had two instances where I came close to being abducted as a kid. You are naive if you think parents are overreacting. once you become the statistic the statistic is meaningless to you

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#267

Post by vineyardmike »

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…

> It's weird to think as a society that we can build a walled garden around human nature.

We literally can. We built lane assistance and airbags and cars that sometimes self drive because humans naturally are bad drivers.

We created fire alarms and automatic sprinklers because sometimes people forget about the thing in the oven.

We invented medication for mental illness and obesity. We invented padded rooms and rehab and all sorts of stuff.

Hell, we invented locks on our front doors.

Guns are one of the most dangerous things a person can own. You can kill someone by pointing a metal tube and pressing a button. It’s very hard to stop once that button is pressed. Almost any other weapon is a lot easier to stop and a lot harder to kill with. That’s why other places don’t have the same death rates as America.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#269

Post by XorNot »

loughnane wrote: post #260
Foreignborn wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a bit of projection. I have a child younger than yours and I feel exactly like OP. I’m really sorry about your son’s experience. Getting lost can be terrifying for a kid. But being lost happens (eg I was lost in hunting woods at 8yo), and many commenters have shared their experiences. Being scared and eventually overcoming the fear is a quintessential growing experience. Obviously there are countless caveats…

Same. 15/10/8 kids here. These are bad. A sibling comment said “everyone is free to do what they want”. I agree with that, but that doesn’t make everything good. In general I’m struck at how many people’s sense or “right” leans so hard on what’s available for sale.

Why is that surprising? If something isn't possible, then it's not possible and we adapt. If something is possible, then then it's possible and we should consider it.

"Can I somehow put a tracking device on my young child?" is a question I've thought about for decades since before I had a young child, and now that I do I've been looking for something that will work for him when he's still little.

Obviously as he grows up the plan is to ramp off the updates - i.e. I don't need to know where he is at all times if he's old enough to know to text me if he'll be out late.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#270

Post by Dylan16807 »

wonderwonder wrote: post #255
Foreignborn wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a bit of projection. I have a child younger than yours and I feel exactly like OP. I’m really sorry about your son’s experience. Getting lost can be terrifying for a kid. But being lost happens (eg I was lost in hunting woods at 8yo), and many commenters have shared their experiences. Being scared and eventually overcoming the fear is a quintessential growing experience. Obviously there are countless caveats…

That's the wonderful thing though, everyone is free to raise their kids as they see fit. Original comment about "I threw up a little in my mouth just from the headline" is obviously ridiculous and attempting to shame parents that opt for this kind of device. Regardless of the choice the parent makes, odds are the kid is going to grow up just fine. There was no need for OP to make an incendiary comment.

It's shaming constant tracking, not anyone that might buy this. And that probably should be shamed.
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