Comment by viraptor | Hacker News Reader

Comment by viraptor | Hacker News Reader

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> saying we should give them restricted phones - does not work practically

I'm not sure why you dismiss that one. Whitelisting apps works - that's the whole idea behind kiosk devices. There are guides available, but basically you enable only the allowed apps, uninstall webview, lock the account.

Yes, it's not trivial and not everyone will want to do it. (It's available though https://support.google.com/families/answer/7103340?hl=en#zip...) That's exactly why I wrote the last paragraph. Full access was one extreme. The ban is another extreme. (And is not exactly easy to implement either)

Once enough places overreact with the complete bans, the lockdown mode will get better documented, more popular, known by schools, finally (hopefully) easily available from the installation screen.

> because is not applicable today by parents

That's ok. This problem will still exist in a couple of years and this will be a bit easier to do each month. It was actually impossible to implement a few years ago, but we made progress.

My nephews were showing me how kids in their school were using Google Docs comments as a social network.

Point being, humans are highly adaptive creatures. You have to cut the source.

I don't see it as an issue. The bad part of social networks is feeding you never ending crap. If kids want to talk to each other... what's the issue with that? We had phone calls and party lines and passing notes before. (Or letters for those who were into that) They were as much a social network as Google doc comments.

It's the feed that allows them access to public posts that is a big problem. Let's start with children accounts where the feed is restricted to friends / followed accounts and only in chronological order.

As I type this, I realize this is exactly what a lot of us have been saying should be done for adults too. And why is it that all social media either moves towards this nebulous endless feed or actively pushes it. Very telling.

> Let's start with children accounts where the feed is restricted to friends / followed accounts and only in chronological order.

That's basically an instant messenger which supports groups.

That sounds like hacker spirit :)

> kids in their school were using Google Docs

They haven’t bottomed out yet, they still have Teams.

That seems fine. Nothing wrong with social networks with you friends.

Everything wrong with for profit social networks with algorithms designed to suck you in and share the worst of humanity.

I am dismissing it because I don't see if feasible to implement this. To keep this practical, please tell me how would you implement this for 10.000 kids.

Concrete plans: - Will you give parents those free phones? - Will you control entering the schools by type of phones? - Will this be a list of 2-3 phones allowed? Is this an intervention in the economy that other companies will do? - What kind of timeline will be needed to implement this?

I do agree we should start implementing long-term solutions. But as a parent, I want a solution now, these years :) for the current generation

Those are not new phones. You can do most of those restrictions on modern phones right now.

I'm not sure why you're putting all those requirements on an idea that can be self enforced in a community. We're commenting on an article where a community implemented a phone ban (not even covering everyone if I understand correctly)

> Is this an intervention in the economy that other companies will do?

Relevant companies already did most of it. Don't wait for the industry to rescue you.

Search for "(your phone type) parental control" and you'll find how to do that right now. Write it down in simple words. Tell other parents. It starts with you.

My kid does not have a phone yet but he is still young.

I talk with parents of kids a bit older like 10 and it is very hard to keep these limits when most of their colleagues don't have these limits.

I agree with you that what we do now is that we are trying to educate other parents about this. But it is hard and the years are passing.

I think access to mobile phones for kids is a big problem and indeed there is no simple solution.

I don't say we should do what the article is describing but I empathise with the parents that want a total ban of mobile phones for kids. It is simpler to enforce and explain this rule than explain everyday why my colleague has access why don't I? And try to explain that without also expressing a judgement on those kids or their families.

So here is a situation: the kids that have access to mobile phones and games at home goes to kindergarten and they play there only with other kids that know those games. They talk about levels and characters from those games. They don't have mobile phones at kindergarten but the fact they use it at home already creates two groups of children: those with access to mobile phones and those without access. And this is kindergarten/pre-school (4-5 years old)

Are you then also not allowing the use of a browser? You don’t need apps for most things.

Just try to allow a browser and block YouTube videos, without dns tricks. Even with block lists, there’s always another site that will show them.

Yes. That's what I'm saying. Alternatively you could play with domain following, but the request here was a simple solution.

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