Hacker News Reader

Comment by DrillShopper | Hacker News Reader

> I’m grateful for being exposed to violence and porn and racism and discussion about suicide and every controversial thing that exists because these are things that exist in the world that I should be aware of and understand.

At what age should we wait to allow kids to read about suicide methods?

View on HN

Yeah, I personally will not subscribe to this. I am a grown man and I strongly dislike watching depictions of violence and want nothing personally to do with porn. My wife works in mental health and is well aware of suicide and counseling people.

I am not hiding my children from the world, but I am also not letting a toddler or a kindergartner cook on a stove or metaphorically speaking "putting a loaded weapon in their hands" too soon. There is plenty of real world stuff they do not need to be concerned with at this time.

There will be a time when they are mature enough to deal with the adult world, but now is not that time.

Across dozens of studies, the evidence is clear: Exposure by itself produces a predisposition to engage.

Just seeing drugs/alcohol/sex in media increases the likelihood of trying them by 25-50%, further increasing with number of exposures.

It’s nice to have ideals that information should be free, even better to fight off abuse (what your parents did to you), but that does not make it the right direction to go in.

This coming from a child psychiatrist’s mouth.

You want your kids to stay away from drugs? Don’t even show it to them until their brains are formed. Don’t even acknowledge they exist. You’ll breed curiosity, and they’ll be statistically more likely to say yes when offered.

Not sure how to avoid exposure when peers are doing drugs (or claiming to) in the bathrooms at school.

Homeschooling and school choice.

Homeschooling: where someone unqualified to teach every subject toughs through it and there are absolutely no standards

School choice: How we get taxpayers to pay for your kid's private and/or religious education

I'm okay with 1 if you admit that you can't teach your kids every subject, and get help where you can, but 2 is unacceptable.

religious people pay taxes too they're just getting their money back

That's not how that works.

I'm a pacifist - can I get a refund of the part of my income tax that funds the Pentagon? Can people who don't have kids get a refund on their school property tax assessment?

If you want to send your kid to private or religious school then you can pay for it yourself.

A pacifist benefits from the military protection their country has whether they like or not. I shouldn't have to pay for the same thing twice

> Homeschooling: where someone unqualified to teach every subject toughs through it and there are absolutely no standards

And if my wife and I are teachers? With postdoctoral degrees?

> > School choice: How we get taxpayers to pay for your kid's private and/or religious education

Seems a little more fair than the current state where I pay both taxes for public school and tuition for a private school. You do know that there's lots of non-religious people who want to take an active role in their children's education?

> > I'm okay with 1 if you admit that you can't teach your kids every subject, and get help where you can, but 2 is unacceptable.

I deny you. On both points.

I saw 0 kids doing drugs in the bathrooms when I was in school, and I went during the 80s and 90s, the height of Just Say No / Winners Don't Use Drugs.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com