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Google releases smart watch for kids

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Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#731

Post by gizmo »

wilsonnb3 wrote: post #646
gizmo wrote: post #611

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assault rifles are rifles designed for killing humans (as opposed to hunting rifles). Sniper rifles require training. Shot guns have limited range and take long to reload. Handguns are hard to aim and not that lethal. Assault rifles are unique in that they allow an untrained teenager to shoot accurately and kill a lot of people very quickly. That’s why people want to restrict access to AR-15 type rifles.

I hesitate to wade into these kinds of conversations but a lot of what you wrote is inaccurate. Shotguns have a limited range compared to rifles but it’s still at least 50 yards so it isn’t going to matter. People hunt deer with them, they aren’t like shotguns in video games. They can also use removable magazines and be as easy to reload as any other semi automatic firearm. There is not a single difference between a…

Getting shot by a handgun is not like getting shot by AR-15. Even at the same caliber the muzzle velocity of a modern rifle makes the bullet that much deadlier.

Prime Minister Robert Fico got shot three (?) times with a handgun and it now looks like he'll survive. Of course he got the best medical care, but still, it serves to illustrate my point.

With an AK-47 I cannot hit anything at 50 yards. The combination of kickback, terrible sight, rough trigger make it pretty hard to use effectively. It's one of the most popular weapons in war zones (doesn't jam, easy to repair, etc) but in my hands it's useless.

I understand we're dealing with shades of gray here. It's about making a policy tradeoff between how many legitimate uses a weapon type has (for example home defense, farm use, hunting) and how many victims it claims.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#732

Post by franczesko »

727374 wrote: post #192

Smart watches for kids are great compared to alternatives. My kids have Apple Watches and aren't asking me for phones/tablets (and the related evils like IG, TT, etc). Love to see this from Google (and Apple).

I'm intrigued by those comments about smartwatches. Can you tell more about your experience? How your kids handle peer pressure?

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#733

Post by Dylan16807 »

locococo wrote: post #585
Dylan16807 wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will note that a way to reach out does not need to involve location tracking capabilities.

My kids spend a lit if time outside, riding bikes running around the forest... If they have an accident it's useful to be able to get to them quickly. Please spare me a response about the qualities of facing adversity and walking home 3 miles with a broken collar bone. If you lack the imagination of how location information is useful then that is ok. Companies offer it because it is, and people want it

I didn't say that.

Should I just quote my adjacent reply that I guess you didn't see? "Even in that situation, at most you need some way to get a location at that moment when they chose to reach out to you, not tracking."

And the ability to get in contact is 90% of the benefit.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#734

Post by godelski »

sersi wrote: post #660
godelski wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> who know the place very well and are trained to deal with such a situation This comment surprises me and I suggests to me that you were not in Boy Scouts (I even worked at a camp for several summers when I was 18/19). Tbh, most of the people in charge of groups are just figuring it out themselves (camps/OOTA/Varsity tend to be a bit better, but I mean camps are run by teenagers and people in their early 20's). The…

I'm curious why not pointing the weapon at the ground? (I've never been to a firing range so this might be a stupid question)

Shooting yourself in the foot isn't just a figure of speech.

Fwiw, you're not going to have this restriction at a standard range. Same with the rules of loading.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#736

Post by pard68 »

scotty79 wrote: post #730
pard68 wrote: post #643

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I follow your meaning, kids still die. I have lost a child and a tracker that ruins their confidence and privacy wouldn't have done anything. Not that much changes.

I'm sorry for your loss. What I meant was that it used to be so common that it was something majority of parents (or large enough fraction) expeirienced so those that didn't experience it might have been seen as not experiencing full range of parenthood. One might say that modern medicine that vastly reduced child mortality somehow keeps most of modern parents from "growing up" in that sense that they never experienc…

Ah, I see. I guess that's possibly true. On the other hand, the loss of someone close to you is practically inevitable. Eventually almost everyone will experience a devastating death (unless the person is the devastating death).

In my observation, the inability to let a child off on their own without any form of supervision or in this case tracking, means that the parent is not ready to let go of that child when they are an adult and need to be given the freedom to succeed or fail on their own.

I am admittedly biased. My sister was tracked from about 12 until this day and she's now 26, I believe. She gets upset when my mother isn't checking in on her. Likewise, my mother can't go more than a few hours without calling my sister. She will regularly check her phone to see where my sister is and then comment on her whereabouts and call or text her to ask why she's where ever.

Likely there are parents who are going to be able to handle these tools responsibly, but I am not sure there is a responsible way to use these.

But I am also biased against them, hopefully I am wrong. I saw how my sister has turned out from having a late-blooming helicopter parent and my wife (one of a dozen kids, so very hands off parents) and I have tried to give our own kids age appropriate freedoms.

I have been amazed by historic accounts of children. One example that sticks out to me is a letter a man in Texas wrote to his brother. The man's wife had died and he had to take care of some affairs in Texas. The man's brother lived in Kansas and he was writing because he'd sent his two children (12 & 13) to Kansas with his herd of cattle to sell. I don't think I'd ever be there, but I do think children are more capable and trustworthy than we give them credit for and we don't give children enough room and as a result we have some extremely childish adults who have never been given the chance to fail and get back up.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#737

Post by scrumper »

andrewla wrote: post #727
scrumper wrote: post #697

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tried a Gizmo when my daughter hit 5th grade; a big increase in independence comes around then (at least in our town which is still quite old fashioned with many, many kids walking, shopping, socializing, and playing outside unsupervised all over town in the nicer months). The thing was an absolute turd. I think over 9 months I managed to get one message to go through to her, maybe two or three calls worked. She was…

Agreed on the turd aspect. It's really amazingly poorly done, everything from the bad charger to the incoherent interface to the badly designed and operating app. But what's nice is that it is a limited capability device. I'd love to hear more about the controls and restrictions associated with an Apple Watch. Apple's documentation is pretty shitty so I don't have a good feel for how it operates; just that the featur…

"Screen Time" under Settings on iOS controls most of the functionality. You can set downtime, school time, allowed apps, and permitted contacts for your kids' devices from that.

For example my daughter is permitted to contact anyone in her contact list (which I approve, so no strangers - and it auto rejects texts from non-contacts) from 0730-0900, then just me and mum from 9-3, then anyone from 3-7, then just parents again. And no apps of any kind from 7pm onwards. That way no distractions at school but she can reach us in an emergency and she can get hold of us when at sleepovers but no playing games at night.

It's a little confusing, and if the docs are shitty I'll have to take your word because I haven't even managed to find any yet, but it does work well. It does however all work once set up.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#738

Post by red-iron-pine »

lomase wrote: post #650

Hoy is a device that cost 229.95$ + 10$ month sub for kids?

kid wouldnt have a cell phone, just the watch.

same cost as a mid-tier smartphone, and 10/mo is for the networking features aka cellphone plan.

kid can't lose it like a cellphone since it's strapped to them, and sill gives them some basic call / text / tracking but without giving them access to the Play store, Tiktok, YT, etc.

the more i think about it the more i'm okay with the idea -- i've done the custom side-loaded android ROM for a kids phone strictly for the purposes of locking it down and it was a PITA.

OTOH now google gets to snoop on your kid 24/7 which i don't love...

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#739

Post by red-iron-pine »

pixxel wrote: post #96
Achtunglskjdf wrote: post #49

I think we are crossing a boundary. If our world gets so broken, that parents need this, we should start changing our world

You’re preaching to the wrong crowd. They’re salivating in this thread to attach a corporate surveillance tracker to their kids.

as if a regular cellphone is less of a tracker?

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#740

Post by red-iron-pine »

matrix87 wrote: post #461

I really don't get it: paying a couple hundred so you can spend 2 seconds reaching for your wrist instead of 5 seconds pulling your phone out of your pocket Like is the watch supposed to replace the phone? Or if not, why bother? If you need heart rate monitoring, why does it need an internet connection?

kids pockets are small, and they lose things a lot.

my middle schooler is on their 3rd phone -- thankfully they were all cheapo, basic models. i'd love the idea to strap it to them, i'm just not crazy about a biometric monitor + something following them uber-closely all day.

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