What if we teach children how to navigate the real world, instead of the digital equivalent of "baby proofing the house"? You don't lock away the kitchen knives from a 12 year old, you teach them how to use them safely.
Parental controls aren't for parents
411–420 of 476 posts
Re: Parental controls aren't for parents
#412Earlier quoted context omitted.
A console is a computer controlled by a corporation. No other result could be expected.
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A solution that works for nerd parents can be sold by those nerd parents to non-nerd parents if the platform wasn't specifically designed to prevent it.
Open hardware and free software is not about nerds.
Re: Parental controls aren't for parents
#413Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, we've always had effective societal gatekeeping on what kids can access. Cigarettes, liquor, porn, R-rated movies, all had general barriers to access for kids in the pre-internet world. Parents could rely on most store clerks not selling alcohol, tobacco, or adult magazines to a child. Parents did not have to hover over everything their child did. Was it perfect, of course not, but it worked fairly well and didn'…
> Parents did not have to hover over everything their child did. Was it perfect, of course not, but it worked fairly well and didn't require constant monitoring. Except kids from families without respectable parents would always be the ones to find access to alcohol, cigarettes, and porn. There were always a few kids in every class that had an older brother, uncle, or friend who would give them access to stuff they s…
Sure the old social there was the kid with porn mags and cigs in his treehouse, but you were never at his house 24/7 and that limited exposure almost inoculated against long term addictions and you experienced it with peer input. Parents would eventually isolate you from those bad elements due to neighbors gossiping and the like.
The new social is your neighbors don’t even know you have kids much less who they are talking too because they are on their phones and kids don’t have peer interactions because you don’t let them outdoors fearing people will report you are exposing them to a dangerous world.
Tech should absolutely have filled that void with a simple age appropriate pediatrician approved on/off with advanced controls available for those that want to tighten or loosen the reins.
I do not have kids, but would envision something like under 5 have no advertising and no network connection without a manual unlock, under 9 should only have access to content with heavy moderation and manual review of advertisements with only approved social contacts and parental alerts for potentially problem content, under 12 restrict unapproved contacts within local school district with problem content blocked with a manual unlock for a set duration, and for under 18 just do an machine learning scan on content and the kid can choose themselves if they want to reveal it with on device warnings about adult content, bullying, scams, and grooming with suggestions to discuss with parents.
Re: Parental controls aren't for parents
#414Earlier quoted context omitted.
We can quibble about the actual age but in principle I agree about GTA. That's because it's a game designed to be fun for kids. Let me tell you about elements of games I'm thinking about: A girl is bullied at school to the point of committing suicide. This isn't a game of vindication. Justice isn't served. Things aren't set right. It's just how things are. Your brother committed suicide a year ago. As part of the gam…
I follow some games but have 0 idea about those. Are those telltale/telltale-like story games?
I didn't want to name some of them because of spoilers.
Two of the games are made by former Telltale employees.
One of them is What Remains of Edith Finch (not much of a spoiler - plenty of other great stuff in the game).
Re: Parental controls aren't for parents
#415Earlier quoted context omitted.
My parents did the no phone until 16 rule, and it was awful. Completely cut me off socially.
This is going to show how naive I am. Because I am middle aged, do not have a cell phone, and still to this day just show up at people's houses unannounced if I want a social experience. This still is possible for me, surely it is possible for kids.
That seems like a great strategy if your goal is for your child to be the weird kid that has no friends.
There are pros and cons to that goal.
Re: Parental controls aren't for parents
#416Just 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…
These are not mistakes. These are not implementation errors or miscommunication between different business units. What you are witnessing is an intentional setting of a revenue dial to the maximum allowable setting that still permits the original sale.
This is why you have government regulation. It’s not perfect, but at least a government is accountable to something other than a profit motive.
Re: Parental controls aren't for parents
#417Re: Parental controls aren't for parents
#418Just 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…
Same goes for the Google Family Link.
There is no way to prevent kid accessing Google Play Store and spam You with requests...
Re: Parental controls aren't for parents
#419Just 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…
Same goes for the Google Family Link. There is no way to prevent kid accessing Google Play Store and spam You with requests...
At least with those requests you can disable notifications and nothing else happens.
Re: Parental controls aren't for parents
#420Just 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…
> marketplace access
The sole reason this devide exists is to put marketplace before your kid's eyes. They won't let you disable it.