A feature doesn't become a problem because 1% have an issue with it (people who use parental control).
The internet is the internet if you want to restrict what people can see on the internet the only solution is to not have access to it at all
The internet is the internet if you want to restrict what people can see on the internet the only solution is to not have access to it at all
Children aren't prisoners.
These days, the amount of utter idiocy is just unimaginable, "eternal september" style. You join some random online game discord and whoops half the talk is about rape fantasies, n-bombs and other kind of sickening behavior. Let it slip you're a girl and you'll get flooded with wiener pics, "cum tributes", disgusting fantasies, doxxing attempts, or flat out hate for standing in the way of someone. Go on Youtube, watch a couple of videos and your suggestions have antivaxx bullshit or "shocker videos". Games for children are filled with barely disguised pedos and "moderation" doesn't do shit. Not exactly an environment many people want to expose their children to.
It's been out there since the beginning; the problem is not the access to it, it's relationship with the internet. Back in the day, you were told to never give your real name online, now you're expected to type it into forms three times a week, while you have a public profile of all of your picture that anyone can look up while an algorithm serves it to the whole world. And yes, some of it is because kids are getting access to this world as toddlers when we weren't able to get there until early teens or the end of grade school at least. Kids need to be taught digital safety more than we need to continue the losing fight about securing access. Kids are smarter and more motivated than you are, they'll find a way around it.
I totally agree. When the reports of how school-issued Chromebooks will monitor texts from any phone plugged into them came out last week, I was tweeting about how we need to do more to teach kids opsec and digital safety/rights. I got some pushback from people who either think that it’s common sense stuff (it isn’t) or that the solution is to legislate something, but I live in reality and reality, as you say, means fhaf kids are smarter and more motivated and will find ways around things.
We need to teach them to protect themselves from prying eyes and how to circumvent the systems their own way.
We also need to stop holding people hostage to stuff they said/did on the internet as literal children, but that’s a separate issue.
Yes, it is absolutely worse in some ways now, not just because some stuff has become desensitized and de-rigeur, as well as the aforementioned algorithm, but let’s not create a hagiography around the halcyon days of “online” that never actually existed.
Like Bane, I grew up in this pit of darkness and was molded by it, and I have true love and affection for it, but like, this element has always been here. Always.
I don't think access to 4chan is going to fundamentally change who your kids are.
Unless they are under constant supervision, they will find a way to access what you're hiding from them. And if they are, well then you don't need technical blocks in the first place, do you?
I'm not telling not to worry about your kids' safety. I'm telling you not to worry about them dying from a lightning strike because they walk to school next to a 6-lane road full of drunk drivers every day. If they're going to get hurt, it won't be through the most complicated and least-likely way possible.