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Comment by Ma8ee | Hacker News Reader

This is the reason why I’m very restrictive with my kids access to any digital devices. Not because they are inherently bad, but because they take valuable time where they should be out playing in nature, practicing social interactions with other kids, learn to play music, or read books.

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We have some time limits on games specifically but it really is mostly Roblox (an hour a day). What stops me from limiting this further is social interaction, ironically. A lot of the current elementary school class meets up there in lieu of a playground, and removing that would limit the kid's social life.

They like to run a voice chat in the background while they play, so it's not just a silent in-game chat interaction.

If removing this I don't know how we would replace the social aspect. Would probably need to find an in-person after-school program which would have its own problems.

> What stops me from limiting this further is social interaction, ironically. A lot of the current elementary school class meets up there in lieu of a playground, and removing that would limit the kid's social life.

This is such sad commentary on modern life. Why is this acceptable at all?

I follow this but part of this attitude has always struck me as slightly off. Parents and others deciding what is valuable versus what isn’t. Granted draining full days in Roblox for the average kid is likely a net loss, but I recall similar attitudes parents had for video games. There’s a fair number of people out there who played lots of video games as children and grew up to do great things because they were inspired by games. Guess I am saying it’s hard to know where inspiration can emerge from. I don’t think teaching our kids some skill is always about its benefits to them but the befits we have perceived from it, regardless of what it is and if the kid likes it. I recall having to go on lots of morning hunts as a kid because my dad enjoyed it and wanted me to enjoy it too, even though I did not.

And we decide that they aren't allowed to eat candy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, because we know that if they do they will feel like crap, even though it might be immediately rewarding.

And while there are people who might have grown up to do great things after playing video games, or reading comic books or watching television, or whatever thing has horrified any given generation, I'm convinced that knowing to play an instrument, have the patience to read to a book or walk in nature, know how to approach a science paper, or dance, give much more chances to live a fulfilling life.

And if you have those things the day you become an adult, you can still choose to play video games with all your free time. But if you have spent your childhood and adolescence playing video games, it is really hard to get started with any of all those other things that life offers.

I want to think that kids today would be able to balance life and tech, because I was able to growing up in the nineties. In the same summer I would spend 8 weeks in the woods working camp staff, and dumping dozens of late nights into MMOs, and think I turned out alright. Surely there were many other factors, but those are the ones focused on here.

It was a very different internet and world though. The thought of giving a child access to YouTube terrifies me. Content is engineered extremely well to prey on children (and adults who are still children), what if they find and get tricked by this? Absolutely terrifies me.

Not allowing access is obviously wrong, they will just resent you and watch even more of it at school, a friends house, etc. So you have to allow access but teach them enough to not fall for it. It’s your parenting vs their extremely well rehearsed, metrics backed, full-time, for-profit, well disguised content, which can either be completely harmless or fuck them up for life.

So, I get it.

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