News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley. Parent comment

Re:A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge ... by DoreenMichele on Friday October 26, 2018 @06:46PM (#18313253)
The largest part of the problem is that the software we're directly interacting with has been designed by companies with interests directly contrary to ours!

I have two adult sons. They were online as early as ages 2 and 5. I beg to differ and all that.

If kids are being ignored and not getting their needs adequately met, etc, then what happens online can have a huge adverse impact on them. But I don't think this is a problem we solve by trying to "fix software." This is a problem we solve by trying to fix social fabric.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge ... by mindslight on Friday October 26, 2018 @09:48PM (#18313944)
You're right of course, but not exclusively - both are necessary. IMHO the era your sons were growing up, the concern was properly contextualizing online interpersonal interactions, which were completely invisible to parents by default.

Now we're dealing with websites/apps that have been explicitly designed to addict mature adults, playing people as pawns against one another. I'm familiar with the idea of "Rat Park" [0], but I think even if we can be absolutely sure kids' needs are being met it would be naive to rely on it.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park

[ Parent | on HN ]