Google releases smart watch for kids • Hacker News Board

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#441

Post by NullPrefix » Thu, May 30, 2024, 5:13 AM UTC

tzs wrote: post #325

NullPrefix wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So? Obesity is a way worse toll on the human body than a scarred face, but we don't issue fines for people who enter McD's Other people have their own bodies and they do not belong to you

If I'm in McDonald's and a fat person enters that does not increase my chances of gaining weight. If I'm driving and a driver not wearing a seatbelt enters the road it does increase my chances of being in an accident because if something happens that makes them have to swerve sharply, such as a large animal leaping into the road in front of them, a seatbelt increases the chances they will be able to remain in control…

According to the CDC in the US every year 800k people suffer from a heart attack. It could happen while driving. While it does not increase your chance of gaining weight, it increases your chance of getting in a car accident, because that other person might be driving while having a heart attack

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#442

Post by cyclecount » Thu, May 30, 2024, 5:13 AM UTC

Creepy, low-quality and overpriced! The Google hardware trifecta.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#443

Post by donw » Thu, May 30, 2024, 5:14 AM UTC

gofreddygo wrote: post #426

khazhoux wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This constant tracking of kids is unnecessary and dangerous. Generations of kids survived without their parents needing to know their location at all times. This topic is always so alarmist. I have kids and a spouse. We all have Find My and Location Sharing on our phones. I don't FrEaK oUt that my kids are going to die if I'm not tracking their every movement. But it's nice to glance at Find My app and see if the k…

Oh jeez. I'm so glad i had none of this goofy tracking gump growing up. If teenage me had something that tracked every location, and I knew it, and my friends had them on too, I'd probably miss out on a lot of stuff I cherish. I had time limits, and a hard immovable low budget that made a lot of the bad stuff impossible. The rest was up to us to figure out and learn and improvise as we go. I'm better for those learni…

To be fair: the only reason I want trackers for my kids is so that I can find them if (a) they run off and get lost; or, (b) they get nabbed.

The average small child can't say what Dad's phone number is, or even his full name. Young kids have really limited awareness of their surroundings, and can get lost very easily. Add multiple kids into the mix and it can be a real challenge to keep them all together when you're out.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#444

Post by NullPrefix » Thu, May 30, 2024, 5:15 AM UTC

daedrdev wrote: post #304

NullPrefix wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So? Obesity is a way worse toll on the human body than a scarred face, but we don't issue fines for people who enter McD's Other people have their own bodies and they do not belong to you

I would rather we don't have to spend precious emergency responder time on preventable injuries and deaths that occur at much higher rates by people not wearing seatbelts. If we can require you wear glasses to drive, we can require you wear a seatbelt as well. When someone dies in an accident because they didn't wear a seatbelt, there is another driver who now has to live with the fact that they killed someone.

Your answer does not refute anything that I said. Because judging from your reasoning, we should ban McDonald's and other bad food, so that people would not get heart attacks and die, so that we wouldn't waste the precious time of first responders, when they could rather attend to other people who actually want to live - those who don't eat poison

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#445

Post by n3storm » Thu, May 30, 2024, 5:22 AM UTC

Just what a developing brain needs, useless games available any time. (sacarsm)

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#446

Post by iiio8 » Thu, May 30, 2024, 5:24 AM UTC

1oooqooq wrote: post #417

BenFranklin100 wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good lord. As I recall, a big part of growing up was spending time and doing things my parents didn’t want me to do. The idea of them tracking me is super creepy, as is tracking one’s spouse for that matter.

kids today will also remember in 30yrs from now how's they had so much freedom... they just had to leave their watch (btw, apple have had kid mode on their watches for a while now) in the school locker and they could roam around, heck maybe even get an uber to some place

Don't worry, if it doesn't have it then I'm sure a future model of this watch will have a "I'm not on a wrist" logging/alerting function.

So the kids need to figure out that in order to do this kind of thing they need to attach their watch to some less-cool kid's wrist that stays at school while they do the fun things. At least that less-cool kid hopefully gets some kind of reimbursement for offering that service.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#447

Post by rock_artist » Thu, May 30, 2024, 5:25 AM UTC

This HN discussion flares one clear thing. While it's a debatable topic, Google did their homework and there are enough potential customers for this product.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#448

Post by imp0cat » Thu, May 30, 2024, 5:25 AM UTC

stickfigure wrote: post #430

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We already use air tags for those outings, and they work really well. Maybe when he is going more out in his own will we consider a true smart watch so he can really roam, but he is still only 7, and we are still more worried about busy traffic on the street than him getting lost.

Yeah, our friends use airtags skiing and that would probably meet our needs. However we're in the Android ecosystem and there isn't really an airtag equivalent.

Samsung does have a comparable line of devices, but yeah, it's Samsung only.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#449

Post by sebtron » Thu, May 30, 2024, 5:25 AM UTC

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 am wondering if we are raising a generation of people find it completely normal to be tracked all the time.

How can we complain when our governmets do the same to us?

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#450

Post by gpm » Thu, May 30, 2024, 5:26 AM UTC

pavel_lishin wrote: post #84

okso wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anyone else feel uneasy about the idea of children having to curb their behavior because they know they're being constantly monitored by their parents? This product concerns me not only due to corporate advertising surveillance but also parental spying.

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…

You're talking about giving the kid the ability to send messages to their parents - I don't think anyone thinks that's a bad thing.

The person you're responding to is talking about the location "sharing" feature, where the watch constantly reports the kids location to their parents without the kid doing anything.