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Google releases smart watch for kids

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Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#761

Post by steve_adams_86 »

bilsbie wrote: post #742
steve_adams_86 wrote: post #690

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stopped using it as much. I had some reports of using it for several hours per day, which as an adult with kids was sort of internally shameful and humiliating. Yet it kept happening despite efforts to prevent it. The watch did a few things. It made it so I didn’t feel like I needed my phone around since my urge to have it was communication with my family or work. So, with that handled I could relax and leave the p…

Thanks very interesting. My main concern would be filling all that newfound time.

I’m not kidding when I say I’ve filled it with great things. I’ve always wanted to dive deeper into robotics but “never had the time”. Well, a couple hours a day is a lot. I’ve made huge strides in learning and I’m actually building practical things with that recovered time.

If someone told me this two years ago I’d think I knew better and they didn’t understand my situation or something. I didn’t realize this was happening until it occurred to me that I was finally learning and building all the stuff I’d intended to. I wondered what changed.

Prior to this I’d built a hydroponics automation and monitoring system, and all said I think it took me ten years. I’m pretty sure I could have quartered that if I wasn’t glued to my phone so much.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#762

Post by sersi »

SoftTalker wrote: post #388
LordDragonfang wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you've sort of missed the forest for the trees, here. If you've gotten to the point where the kid is hiding a phone from you, you're already in an adversarial relationship with a young adult who has lost trust in your ability to be a reasonable authority figure.

Pretty much all teens have stuff they are hiding from their parents. Some of it is trivial, some might be pretty serious. For example I'd guess it's not very common for your kid to come home and announce he's started having sex (though one of mine did).

Ha! my dad celebrated my announcement by inviting me to a good restaurant. I would never have thought about hiding that from my parents and I had their full support to bring my girlfriend back to my room (and later for the night)

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#763

Post by ChicagoDave »

tuumi wrote: post #668
ChicagoDave wrote: post #275

Here we go with more helicopter parenting devices. Please parents...look up the studies on how detrimental it is to hover over every aspect of your child's life. It's not good. I raised five kids to adulthood with the last one finishing his freshman year of college this year. None of them had devices until middle school and even then, it was restricted. We made our kids roam around like feral coyotes. They are absolu…

Chicago huh? Are you talking Naperville or did your kids grow up in an apartment on Lakeshore? The context here means a lot. Surely you wouldn't begrudge a parent in Detroit (outside of safe downtown) having a device to communicate/locate their child.

Geneva and city life is certainly different. You’ll still see young kids roaming around in parts of Chicago. Not every part though.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#764

Post by para_parolu »

steve_adams_86 wrote: post #713
ghaff wrote: post #691

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funnily enough a lot of people trotted out the "only old people wear watches" argument when the Apple Watch came out as a reason why it was going to be a failure. That said, I canceled my cellular plan on my original one and really mostly use it as a GPS device when hiking. It's easier just to use a watch that doesn't need charging day to day.

Yes, charging is a legitimate pain in the ass. At first I didn’t mind, now I find it annoying. Maybe because I took a long hiatus from work and I’m rarely at a desk; that’s where I used to charge it.

I found the best place to charge is bathroom. I drop them on charger when go to shower. Works well for me

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#765

Post by imp0cat »

dustincoates wrote: post #510
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AirTags have a huge network advantages in that a lot of people have iPhones. It’s not what you have, but what everyone else has that is important when finding things. That Google hasn’t bothered to compete, or the antitrust authorities haven’t out yet, is a complete mystery to me. Airtags alone have me firmly locked into owning an iPhone.

Google and partners are rolling out their own network now: https://9to5google.com/2023/05/10/android-find-my-device-tra...

Right! I got the prompt to enable it a few days ago on my phone. :)

Also, the Samsung network of devices is quite comparable to Apple's, apparently a lot of people own Samsung phones, TV sets or other devices. So if you have a Samsung phone, give their tags a try, it's definitely a lot cheaper than switching everything to Apple.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#766

Post by cvak »

sharadov wrote: post #183
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…

Gave my 11 year old an apple watch, not so that I can track him, but just so that he can call me when he needs me ( there are times when he's at practice and am running late to pick him up or sometimes he just plain loses track of time because of his ADHD ). And, he can set timers and alarms to keep track of his schedule. My kids are pretty free-range, riding their bikes to/fro from school and hanging out at their fr…

They are selling "dump phone" in form of a watch nowdays, really thinking of getting one for exact same usecase.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#768

Post by khazhoux »

kelnos wrote: post #543
khazhoux wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’ve talked about it. They don’t care.

I either a) find that very hard to believe, or b) am horrified at the environment children are growing up in these days that the prospect of 24/7 parental location tracking is something they'd agree to without question. I do wonder how they will feel after the first time you ask them, "Hey, why were you at place X, I thought you told me you would be at place Y?" (even if there's an innocent, reasonable explanation).…

> I do wonder how they will feel after the first time you ask them, "Hey, why were you at place X, I thought you told me you would be at place Y?"

First, I have to say again that I'm not sitting there watching the map icon when they're running around.

But to your direct point, I'm very mindful not to call them out like that unless it was a very strong concern warranting a serious talk (which hasn't happened yet). I don't think that's wildly different than my parents not busting me for all shit they knew I was getting into, because they (more or less) trusted I knew right from wrong.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#769

Post by v-erne »

lolinder wrote: post #686
v-erne wrote: post #637

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not understand how anyone can be so categoric about this - it should not depend on peer pressure but also it should not be dictated by some ideologies. Phones (instant communication actually) is part of modern world and is here to stay and children should learn it as fast as they are able to handle it. Otherwise there is a danger of being left out for them. And at their age there is few other equal things that c…

> And at their age there is few other equal things that can make or break their future as being accepted by their peers. Hard disagree to this idea as justification for purchasing something for a kid. The most useful gift that my parents gave me is a cultivated disregard for what is popular. It's not that I go out of my way to alienate my peers—I try to get along well with everyone and it mostly works—but the habit o…

I'm guessing you are in software dev or something auxiliary to it? And probably you were passable in STEM topics at school?

Then maybe, just maybe, your whole career is just happy accident of right time (software eating world) and right predispositions (STEM). I know mine is.

And if I would not have that I would be earning what 85% of my peers here in Poland do (barely enough to pay bills).

The only ones that are doing ok without this are the ones that invested everything in social skills (by happy accident of not having socially akward parents or by themselfs intuitively knowing that your group is everything).

So this is just implementation of my deepest believe that the best what we can do for our children is to make them as socially sklled as possibile. And limiting channels of communication does not look like a good way to this.

Of course Im not advocating unlimited access to everything for everyone - it depends on emotional development and predispositions.

Re: Google releases smart watch for kids

#770

Post by dgacmu »

aflag wrote: post #747
dgacmu wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can attach a kid watch to your iphone plan. They get their own number and are part of your family management. It works really well. At least one parent must have an iphone, though. There is no watch specifically for kids, we just gave ours my wife's old one (I'm on Android, so ...)

Sounds a bit different than what Google is offering. Google’s look more like imoo. Which is just a standalone device made for kids. So kids can pair their devices and use the restricted set of images (emoji-like but more restricted) and features. Everything in the watch is made geared towards kids (like classroom mode, for instance). That Apple Watch thing seems like an after thought and it seems a lot more expensive…

Right. The watch has LTE and does its thing independently.

It does have kid features like schooltime. It's not priced cheap for kids - cheapest new is almost $500. (Hence giving our kid a two or three year old, used one. :-)

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