Google releases smart watch for kids • Hacker News Board

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#511

Post by wiz21c » Thu, May 30, 2024, 7:23 AM UTC

roydivision wrote: post #505

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>As I recall, a big part of growing up was spending time and doing things my parents didn’t want me to do. a big part of parenting is making sure your kid actually is at school, or monitoring more closely a child that has done improper things.

Or - A big part of parenting is building trust with your child to do what is expected of them, and dealing with it when they stray.

Or - A bi gpart of parenting is making sure the kids understand why they have to go to school and how lucky they are to be able to.

(but I 100% agree with you, trust is not achieved with panopticon control)

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#512

Post by dustincoates » Thu, May 30, 2024, 7:23 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.

Google is starting to roll out a Find My Device network, but it's been delayed so the trackers are just now shipping and there aren't yet reviews out on how good they are.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#513

Post by handity » Thu, May 30, 2024, 7:24 AM UTC

khazhoux wrote: post #346

jagged-chisel wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the important part is whether the children are affected by the tracking. Is it a big deal if they don’t have service and you can’t Find them for a couple hours? Mine are grown now, but I’ve always told them: I’m not worried about where you are, I want to know where to go when something happens and you need a rescue. I want them to have the peace of mind that, if needed, the safety net is within reach. When I…

> I think the important part is whether the children are affected by the tracking I have no reason to think they're impacted by me knowing where they are. They're confident, run around for hours, and are growing up just fine. So what if their parents can look up their location... big deal. Pushing the alarmist argument, though: should I just take away their cell phones, to give them the same experience I had growing…

I find it difficult to imagine ubiquitous surveillance not shaping behavior and thought.

I was born in the mid 90s and remember some of my friends getting flip phones in the early 2000s. One friend was given a phone that would report its location to their parents, presumably through some web-portal. I vaguely remember the conversation where my friend told me about this phone and the location tracking, and I remember the uncomfortable feeling that new idea provoked. I believe that reaction is a natural one to the idea of being followed everywhere you go, but that reaction is only possible if the idea hasn't been normalized from birth.

Just because surveillance is largely ubiquitous and societally normalized doesn't mean it has no impact, and that impact is unlikely to be articulated by those experiencing it.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#514

Post by dbish » Thu, May 30, 2024, 7:24 AM UTC

hatsix wrote: post #452

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…

Please explain how you think it's dangerous. I asked my boomer mother about whether she'd have liked to have had a gps on me when I was a kid in the 80s. She said she would have loved it. she worked until 5 and there was no "after school care" in our small town... she kept our pantry full of chips and soda and our video games new so that we'd be home when she got home, rather than out somewhere else with our friends.…

It teaches the wrong thing to both parent and child.

Parent gets hooked on surveillance rather than trusting their kid to be independent. The “safety net” is actually a mental crutch imho.

Child thinks 24/7 surveillance is ok or resents their parent as they get older since they are always being watched.

Not to mention that tracking is unlikely to really save a kid in a life or death situation that is any reasonable level of risk (like a car accident).

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#515

Post by Freak_NL » Thu, May 30, 2024, 7:28 AM UTC

broeng wrote: post #504

gofreddygo wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I have a toddler, and that has changed my view on it a bit, from the same starting point you are expressing. With the social pressure going on, I expect she'll get a smartphone earlier that I'd honestly prefer (not that we are there any time soon), and quite a bit before she's a teenager. So I honestly expect we'll be location sharing for a while, but I don't expect it to continue into the teenage years. By then it'l…

Why would her having a smartphone lead to an expectation of location sharing? I completely expect my five year old son to have the freedom to just not have his future gadgets on him if he so prefers when he gets to the age that a smartphone is unavoidable, and I certainly don't expect him to let us track him.

Hopefully the age where a smartphone becomes a requirement to not be marked as a social outcast will gradually rise again.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#516

Post by dbish » Thu, May 30, 2024, 7:31 AM UTC

colechristensen wrote: post #378

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…

Basically every person i know in their mid-20s has a small group of people they have always on location sharing with. Usually a partner, a couple of close friends, and a parent or two. They don’t see it as any sort of problem to share this information. I get the tech focused millennial paranoia about this but when it gets down to it you have nothing to fear if the people you share that with actually respect you and y…

This is a great example that’s actually not a good thing. The lack of paranoia is going to allow many others to track you for their own purposes like companies and governments and just allow privacy erosion to happen passively.

“You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide” os pretty similar to “you have nothing to fear if someone else chooses not to look”

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#517

Post by globular-toast » Thu, May 30, 2024, 7:32 AM UTC

> Meet Fitbit Ace LTE, the first-of-its-kind smartwatch that makes movement fun for kids.

You know what also makes movement fun for kids? Being able to go outside. Not having helicopter parents. A bicycle. A football. Something is very wrong if kids don't even want to run around unless they're filling up rings on a screen.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#518

Post by taylorius » Thu, May 30, 2024, 7:33 AM UTC

throwaway290 wrote: post #440

taylorius wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that distinction is as stark as you make it. Spouses can be overly, annoyingly controlling - and it can happen gradually. I'm sure that for every person who doesn't mind their partner knowing where they are, there's another who has been pressured into it - perhaps by it being insinuated that their not wanting to be trackable means that they have something to hide.

It's about consent perhaps?

I'm not going to say that consent doesn't exist - but it's sufficiently ill-defined as a concept that it is somewhat meaningless. What constitutes consent?

If I finally agree to something after being nagged interminably - have I consented, or have I just given in?

At the other end of the spectrum, if someone asks for something which doesn't particularly suit my purposes, but I agree to it as it seems fair enough - is that consent?

One situation seems like it is, the other one probably not. But where is the line? To me, consent seems like a vaguely letter-of-the-law, CYA type of word.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#519

Post by taylorius » Thu, May 30, 2024, 7:35 AM UTC

Gud wrote: post #458

taylorius wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that distinction is as stark as you make it. Spouses can be overly, annoyingly controlling - and it can happen gradually. I'm sure that for every person who doesn't mind their partner knowing where they are, there's another who has been pressured into it - perhaps by it being insinuated that their not wanting to be trackable means that they have something to hide.

Yes, they absolutely can be. The difference is you can leave your spouse, an option not really realistic for a child.

You CAN leave your spouse - but in many common circumstances, it's by no means an easy option.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#520

Post by Freak_NL » Thu, May 30, 2024, 7:42 AM UTC

donw wrote: post #443

gofreddygo wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

But how? My five year old knows his home address and his full name. If he ever gets lost he'll be safe. Actually getting lost at that age is really hard too, because a five year old is not often left unattended.

Besides, in the coming years I very much want him to grow up knowing that if he gets lost or in a dangerous situation, he will have to rely on himself in the first place. That means not freezing and just waiting for the helicopter parent to swoop in to a blinking dot on the map, but knowing how to get help and how to be safe. He'll need to do that if his parents are unavailable (some freak accident?) too in any case.

And kidnapping? Don't kid yourself. If you live somewhere where this is even remotely probable and your kid is a target (kidnapping is usually done by family), the chance that the kidnapper will take the tracking device along are remote, unless you intend on hiding it in their clothing or chipping them like a pet.