Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What kids told us about how to get them off their phones

theatlantic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 106 posts

Re: What kids told us about how to get them off their phones

#61

Post by lm28469 »

amtamt wrote: post #16
kevingadd wrote: post #3

> Since the 1980s, parents have grown more and more afraid that unsupervised time will expose their kids to physical or emotional harm. In another recent Harris Poll, we asked parents what they thought would happen if two 10-year-olds played in a local park without adults around. Sixty percent thought the children would likely get injured. Half thought they would likely get abducted. > These intuitions don’t even beg…

> United States is so rare that a child would have to be outside unsupervised for, on average, 750,000 years before being snatched by a stranger. Is this stat from 1980s or recent? If recent, what may be the likelihood that such stats are the outcome of parents' paranoia?

There are 300 kid abductions per year in the US, more or less the same amount of people who got struck by lightning or the same about of kids who drown in swimming pool. I don't see any hysteria around two of these topics though

Re: What kids told us about how to get them off their phones

#62

Post by jgwil2 »

28304283409234 wrote: post #7

> That’s why we’re so glad that groups around the country are experimenting with ways to rebuild American childhood ... There's nothing specifically 'American' about this.

The degree to which childhood independence has been curbed appears to be more extreme in the United States than in other countries.

Re: What kids told us about how to get them off their phones

#63

Post by zelphirkalt »

kleiba wrote: post #19

> But most of the children in our survey said that they aren’t allowed to be out in public at all without an adult. Fewer than half of the 8- and 9-year-olds have gone down a grocery-store aisle alone; more than a quarter aren’t allowed to play unsupervised even in their own front yard. This is probably a uniquely US problem because after we moved to Europe, we noticed that we see kids without their parents nearby al…

And that is probably a symptom of pedestrian friendly city design, compared to car centric design.

Re: What kids told us about how to get them off their phones

#64

Post by danaris »

Jyaif wrote: post #30
mtalantikite wrote: post #23

> ...we asked parents what they thought would happen if two 10-year-olds played in a local park without adults around. Sixty percent thought the children would likely get injured. Half thought they would likely get abducted. During summer vacation when I was 10 (early 90s) I'd leave the house in the morning and head down to the local park to play basketball or roam the neighborhood with the other kids. We'd ride our…

Your testimony is quite literally survivor bias. What would not be survivor bias is you telling us what happened to the kids around you.

And just what percentage of kids who played outside in the late '80s/early '90s do you think were seriously injured or abducted?

Because whatever you think it is, that's probably much too high. Because it almost never happened. There were a very few highly-publicized cases of children disappearing (eg, JonBenet Ramsey, or in my area Sarah Ann Wood), but a) those were always incredibly rare, and b) such occurrences have been getting steadily rarer for many decades.

Re: What kids told us about how to get them off their phones

#65

Post by 83457 »

gambiting wrote: post #26
mtalantikite wrote: post #23

> ...we asked parents what they thought would happen if two 10-year-olds played in a local park without adults around. Sixty percent thought the children would likely get injured. Half thought they would likely get abducted. During summer vacation when I was 10 (early 90s) I'd leave the house in the morning and head down to the local park to play basketball or roam the neighborhood with the other kids. We'd ride our…

At 7 years old my parents would leave for work before I had to go to school, so I had to eat breakfast, dress myself and go to school, locking the door behind me - the walk was across few busy streets which I was told how to cross. Then I would come back before they were home so likewise, I had to let myself in and just wait for them to come back. I think nowadays if I did that with my son I would have child services…

I can't tell if you are advocating for that to still be common. Regardless, I just want to point out the survivor bias in anyone saying this should still be done based on stories like this one. The children in similar circumstances who were killed aren't here to talk about it. (Not trying to be rude)

Re: What kids told us about how to get them off their phones

#66

Post by masfuerte »

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #37
Jyaif wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your testimony is quite literally survivor bias. What would not be survivor bias is you telling us what happened to the kids around you.

I grew up the the 60s and 70s, and all the kids lived like this. Stranger danger hadn't been invented yet.

It had. In the 1970s my grandmother warned me not to talk to strangers.

More importantly, it didn't stop her sending me shopping when I was four years old.

Re: What kids told us about how to get them off their phones

#67

Post by danaris »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #20
kevingadd wrote: post #3

> Since the 1980s, parents have grown more and more afraid that unsupervised time will expose their kids to physical or emotional harm. In another recent Harris Poll, we asked parents what they thought would happen if two 10-year-olds played in a local park without adults around. Sixty percent thought the children would likely get injured. Half thought they would likely get abducted. > These intuitions don’t even beg…

My son recently had to get rabies shots. Well, that was the recommendation because there was a bat in the sleeping quarters of his camp. The probability that the bat had rabies is vanishingly small. Just like the probability that the bat bit him with no marks. But, you read about rabies (no cure, horrible death), and even if it is a 1-10 million chance and you can do something about it — well, he got the shot (over m…

Getting a rabies shot is a much less onerous protective measure than preventing kids from playing unsupervised for their entire childhoods.

Re: What kids told us about how to get them off their phones

#68

Post by Rakshith »

mtalantikite wrote: post #23

> ...we asked parents what they thought would happen if two 10-year-olds played in a local park without adults around. Sixty percent thought the children would likely get injured. Half thought they would likely get abducted. During summer vacation when I was 10 (early 90s) I'd leave the house in the morning and head down to the local park to play basketball or roam the neighborhood with the other kids. We'd ride our…

this was probably before your country opened the doors to rapists and violent murderers to come live amongst yall though

Re: What kids told us about how to get them off their phones

#69

Post by jgwil2 »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #20
kevingadd wrote: post #3

> Since the 1980s, parents have grown more and more afraid that unsupervised time will expose their kids to physical or emotional harm. In another recent Harris Poll, we asked parents what they thought would happen if two 10-year-olds played in a local park without adults around. Sixty percent thought the children would likely get injured. Half thought they would likely get abducted. > These intuitions don’t even beg…

My son recently had to get rabies shots. Well, that was the recommendation because there was a bat in the sleeping quarters of his camp. The probability that the bat had rabies is vanishingly small. Just like the probability that the bat bit him with no marks. But, you read about rabies (no cure, horrible death), and even if it is a 1-10 million chance and you can do something about it — well, he got the shot (over m…

> The probability that the bat had rabies is vanishingly small.

Not really, it's something like 5%. Usually if the bat can be captured and tested for rabies you can wait to get the vaccine, but if the bat couldn't be caught, it makes sense to vaccinate just in case.

I don't understand why you would want to take a chance on rabies. What are the side effects of the vaccine that are so harmful?

Re: What kids told us about how to get them off their phones

#70

Post by closewith »

gjadi wrote: post #60
closewith wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK, about 5% of children have been sexually abused. Nobody wants to risk that happening to their children and it's mostly perpetrated by people known to the children, so trust is understandably at an all time low.

But since it's mostly by people close to the children, the fear of the stranger is not justified.

Right, but parents don't trust anyone in the community, so stranger danger teaches kids to avoid any adults outside the immediate family and it's not unwarranted. For every Madeline McCann, there are literally millions of children abused.
Post reply on HN