Is it possible for kids to socialize well online? | Hacker News Reader

Is it possible for kids to socialize well online?

7 pointsactfrench7 comments

A lot of kids have been feeling really isolated during this time of social distancing. And it is impacting their mental health. At my company, we're working on ways to build meaningful connections for kids online during this time of social distancing. I'm wondering if any parents here have found good ways for their children to socialize online? Or if anyone's teacher has taken a good approach to this? Would love any examples of how you've made this work that I can share with other families who are really struggling with this right now.

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For what it is worth, the best online socializing I have seen my kids do was in zoom calls after formal lessons had ended and the teacher had left.

These after parties could sometimes last an hour after formal lessons had ended and I could hear kids talking and laughing together in an organic way. Something I never hear when my kids video chat with one other friend "head to head".

So, my recommendation is find a way for kids to interact in organic groups.

I second the zoom meeting after the teach has left. My daughter loves it when this happens.

Thank you so much. That's great. How many kids were there in the "after party" call?

My kid's classes of 22 or so probably regularly had 15 or so kids attend the online version (the fact that so many kids did not attend online classes is a disturbing aside)

After the teacher had done their lesson and left, my guess is between 8 and 12 kids regularly stayed to goof off.

I recommend you work with school districts and find way to integrate your product as a "virtual recess" that gets tacked on to one or more classes during the day.

I think parents will respond better to "virtual recess" than "after party" :-P

A video stream of some sort while kids are playing a game together, like Minecraft or Animal Crossing, seems to work well. The game takes the place of blocks/toy for them to interact with and takes the stress away from them having to give full attention to each other which younger kids aren't really equipped to do.

*ymmv, but it seemed to work reasonably well for my kid and his friends 6-9 yr old age range.

My kid (6 yo) does fine without the video streaming. It's also good because it teaches her to practice writing. But she goes on rants on why people don't know how to spell "your" and "please".

We have to carefully monitor her screen time because online socializing is very addictive, especially for children. They can spend morning until midnight on their phones if you let them. On the plus side, it's a good way to train discipline - they can look at their phones after homework, a shower, cleaning the dishes, and only until 10 PM. Just sneak a new chore in there every month once they do the previous chores automatically.

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