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Comment by bioemerl | Hacker News Reader

The correct answer is to be having regular discussions with your kids about what they're doing online, and occasionally log into their accounts, having access to their usernames so that you can do it, so that you know what they're up to.

Probably not as necessary once they're like 15 or so, but up that age do not let them be on there on their own. And, of course, make sure they know critical thinking and discuss everything that they see online with them instead of heavy-handedly barring them from it.

Teach them about the satanic panics of the 1970s. Teach them about social pressure, teach them about rationalism, show them some good old James randii.

I've seen some of this trend on discord. It is genuinely nasty and you should be keeping tabs on your kids.

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> log into their accounts, having access to their usernames so that you can do it, so that you know what they're up to.

Wouldn't it damage the trust between you and your child? I think even monitoring internet usage in-person or outright restricting access to potentially dangerous websites would be less intrusive. If your kid discovers you can access their messages at any time, it would make them more inclined to make other accounts and not discuss about any dangerous interactions on them out of fear of being discovered.

The only way that's going to damage your trust with your kid is if you are secret about it. Show them and tell them that you're getting onto their accounts. They could even be sitting in the room with you.

Eventually you have to stop doing this, they have to grow up, but especially when they're very young it is very important that you're actually on their account because they don't know enough to see and report when something harmful is going on.

> The correct answer

I'm not a parent, so I didn't want to say that, but it is certainly what I was thinking. =)

To be fair I'm not a parent either, maybe this just won't work.

But I was also a kid, and I know that if I was barred from doing something I would 100% go behind my parents back and do it anyway, so that's not going to work.

You have to try something else.

Agreed 100%.

That said, my parents always told me that if I wanted to try drugs (like weed), let them buy it for me so that they could at least know I was getting good stuff.

Honestly, that just made it more awkward... but it did instill in me that I should at least make sure that I was not just taking random shitty drugs. It also made me wait until I could find stuff I could trust before trying it.

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