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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.
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.
They declined because they think watches are lame and nerdy. Only the most unfortunate kids get watches. They still can't carry them around the house, but I didn't gain much ground overall. I've gradually increased controls on and over the phones in my home, but the watch offer has never been taken up.
I think you're right that it could be an overlooked solution, but I suspect you need to sneak in before the kids are accustomed to a phone.
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> going to be useless in 2 years, why would I buy it for my kid Don't worry about it. I will be broken or lost far before those 2 years :)
And if that doesn't happen, the battery will be such crap that your kid will do nothing but complain about it 24/7. You will wish it was lost.
If I needed to track my kids' locations, I'd give them each an Airtag. $20ish and free tracking. I mind much less if they destroy/lose a $20 thing with a replaceable battery.
Anyone else who would be uncomfortable opting your child into location, behavior and health surveillance by the world's largest advertising company?
Your kids won’t appreciate it once they grow up and they found out later that their whole childhood been recorded and being used to train AI or even worse, a data breach, since they didn’t have the choice to opt in or out.
$230 device, plus $10/mo, and that is per kid. At what age does Google think kids are responsible enough to be given such a device?
Google’s views on this could be quite interesting to hear. Remember the (long ago) episode when Schmidt suggested that kids change their names to avoid connection with online antics in the past?
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Not getting a phone you know about!
A minor is going to get a phone plan w/o a guardian signing for it? And use it in my house without me knowing? There is a lot my kid is going to do under my nose, getting a smartphone doesn't seem too likely (esp. if he has alternatives like a desktop).
Anyone else who would be uncomfortable opting your child into location, behavior and health surveillance by the world's largest advertising company?
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.
If you don't want this for your kids, just don't get it. If you are worried about folks knowing where your kids are and what they are up to, I have bad news for you about neighborhood gossip.
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.
Overseas contractors, third party apps that are used by said contractors, other cloud services and their contractors etc etc.