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Comment by erfgh | Hacker News Reader

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erfgh

> I gave my daughter (6) my iPad for ten minutes this morning

There's your problem. Just don't do that. But if you can't avoid it, disconnect the internet before you do it.

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What a silly answer. He is giving a reasonable, constructive criticism that should be simply be taken seriously.

You might disagree giving an iPad to a little girl. Fine. But the suggestion for the site still stands.

This reply frustrated me to the core. This isn't a parenting website. The advice you gave is a parenting one, and bad, at that. The story could have just been concocted for the benefit of understanding the urgency of the situation. You should probably read this: https://nibblestew.blogspot.com/2020/04/your-statement-is-10... It'll make you a little wiser. As to why your reply frustrated me? I think the internet is overwhelmed by [...] trying to draw lines where no limit should really be required (please note that I'm referring to your comment, not to the request for any sort of protection on Virus Cafe...). The problem wasn't that he/she gave the ipad/iphone to the daughter, but the lack of security on the site. Better people than us said this is actually illegal, so you see, you're slightly out of line. I wanted to somehow say you're right, but irrelevant. But you aren't even right. Even a 6 yearold should have access to an iphone or an ipad, CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET, as it were. The situation forks: 1 - enable parenting rights on the device ...which would mean that if I just want my kid to experience the iphone for 5 minutes I have to enable a feature that afterwards I need to disable... (this forks again, about 3 ways) 2 - buy one especially for the kid ...I don't even want to start... (this actually forks in volumes and volumes of pros and cons)

So let's just stick to the real problem here: I (and when I say I, I mean a forty smthg yearold) was on the verge of clicking Yes to the question whether I allow Virus-Cafe to use my mic and cam. The pop-up pops up exactly where the pop-up for notifications appears, and as I usually block notifications from websites, I almost clicked No by default. In the very last second did I read the actual text on the pop-up. GDPR is really a thing and, as I mentioned previously, it is illegal to just pop that up. Some information should precede the question. (Forks again, let's not go into it.)

I do apologize both for the length of the reply and for its aggressiveness (if you chose to consider it aggressive).

That’s not the problem though is it. I said I accept my lapse, but such easy access into a world of video sharing should have at least cursory controls for children.

My lapse isn’t in question, it’s the many other children around the world who will be shoved in front of a device and forgotten about, and how this site does nothing to protect them.

We’re in lockdown, myself and my wife work full time and then some. My daughter wanted to paint minecraft skins while I was sat with her. Within two minutes she was on this site somehow and sharing video with someone from the states.

That’s not cricket.

But that's how the internet works. If not this site, then it'll be another, and another, and another... You are just one URL away from violence, porn, racism, drugs, you name it. Are you going to ask all those millions of sites to put age restrictions and barriers up too? Governments have tried and failed. I'd recommend directing your energy in to setting up whitelists and/or other monitoring software and teaching your daughter to become internet savvy, because what you are trying to do is fight a battle that you simply cannot win.

Personally, putting up any sort of age test is just another annoyance and barrier to entry that makes me more likely to give up trying the site and turn my attention elsewhere. Most kids are smart enough to figure out how to bypass this sort of thing quickly anyway - as I did back in the day, getting past the questions to gain access to Leisure Suit Larry!

I understand that you're emotional, but I don't follow the logic.

Why would you like to change a random site? Wouldn't she end up on a different one next time?

As mentioned elsewhere ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23415324 ), it seems easier to configure the iPad so that it's safe to give it to your daughter.

You've accepted your lapse, but you don't seem to accept any further responsibility to stop this from happening in the future. Instead, you're putting this responsibility on countless websites that YOU think are inappropriate for your daughter. The burden is on you. Own it.

If you don't want your six year old daughter to access video and audio then don't give her a device with access to video and audio - that's entirely your obligation, nobody else's.

(Disabling undesired features is another option)

For what it's worth, as a developer, I would not want to introduce user friction to my site specifically, just to address a more global problem.

Perhaps you would be better off addressing this concern with browser developers.

Would you give her your gun or knive or porn collection of sword collection?

Would you leave her in front of a tv with access to the porn channel.

Your the weak link here.

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