Somewhere along the way I feel it became normal to just let your children do whatever they want online with no supervision and no parental controls.
And at the same time I do think computer providers, Windows, Mac OS and all that don't offer good enough parental control.
Age verification is a problem as well, but it's foolish to think every website and app will implement proper safeguards. I mean, Omegle could simply be replaced by some darker Russian clone with even less effort put towards fighting crime.
Instead there should be opt in. When a child user is logged in to Windows et all, an allow list should always be in place. And only apps and websites that claim to be child safe should be included.
And parents must make sure to only let their kids use child accounts.
The idea that some KYC would be forced on all online website and apps just doesn't make sense otherwise.
And now it would be fair to sue websites that claim to be child safe and have opted in, if they turn out not to be.
> Somewhere along the way I feel it became normal to just let your children do whatever they want online with no supervision and no parental controls.
for those of us who were kids when the internet was basically a social unknown, it's not something that 'became normal', the internet didn't come about censored from the get-go -- these moderation/censorship tools were added in after-the-fact to cope with parental and (more importantly) government worries that children were being victimized via exposure.
and, for the most part, we grew up OK even without the heavy-handed censorship.
>Instead there should be opt in. When a child user is logged in to Windows et all, an allow list should always be in place. And only apps and websites that claim to be child safe should be included.
i'm not necessarily anti-censorship, and i'm never having kids -- my opinion on this is worthless for all practical sake -- but i'll say this : If I didn't have the freedom to tinker and explore with the systems that took up my free-time as a child there is no way I would have grown up to have such expertise now.
Take that however you will. I know nothing of child care but I do recognize the opportunities in my own life that made me grow as an individual; having 'cyber-space' as my 'home' from an early age offered a lot of opportunities that were unique and self-improving.
I feel there's plenty of space for children to tinker, even in an accept list scenario. In fact, it's more so the spaces that empower you to create that would be on it, since they involve no "dangerous" social interaction. Programming environments, drawing and writing applications, game makers, etc.
That said, parents could decide to let their kids use adult user accounts, maybe supervised, or if they trust their child, or depending on their exact age. And if they do, they'd be taking the liability, not the platform whose EULA specifies otherwise.
At least this all seems a much better approach to balance safety of children on the internet, while leaving adults to have whatever free and wild spaces they want for themselves.
The alternative seems to block it for everyone. Or to have some ridiculous requirements like full blown KYC that either mean complete loss of anonymity for everyone, or unsustainable rules that indirectly mean it's not tenable to offer such spaces even to adults.
> Somewhere along the way I feel it became normal to just let your children do whatever they want online with no supervision and no parental controls.
I got handed a modem at age 9 and I started dialing into local BBSs.
I learned how to use paragraphs because I got made fun of for posting giant blocks of text.
The reason I wasn't using paragraphs initially is that they hadn't been taught to me yet in school.
A couple of years later I got on to the Internet proper.
In many ways it was wonderful. The optimism, the feeling that something amazing was happening. The hope that once everyone could talk to each other that a new era of global understanding could be reached.
At the age of 13 I was able to go on technical forums and if I put enough thought into what I said, my ideas were considered to be of no lesser or greater worth than the ideas put forth by others.
Although, back then the Internet was a bit more mature on average so I felt that I needed to at least try and put thought into what I said. (Not saying I always succeeded...)
> And parents must make sure to only let their kids use child accounts.
Or how about, when someone under 18 is using a computer, every hour a giant message appears on the screen "DON'T SEND NUDES TO ANYONE. NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY. PS: ALSO DON'T BUY GIFT CARDS FOR ANYONE ONLINE."
That'd probably solve 60% of problems that underage users get into.
Jokes aside, I get it. The Internet is a worse place than when I first joined. But I'm more scared of kids running into curated video feeds that lead them down paths of extremism (e.g. red pill, gamergate) than I am of pedophiles.
And at the same time I do think computer providers, Windows, Mac OS and all that don't offer good enough parental control.
Age verification is a problem as well, but it's foolish to think every website and app will implement proper safeguards. I mean, Omegle could simply be replaced by some darker Russian clone with even less effort put towards fighting crime.
Instead there should be opt in. When a child user is logged in to Windows et all, an allow list should always be in place. And only apps and websites that claim to be child safe should be included.
And parents must make sure to only let their kids use child accounts.
The idea that some KYC would be forced on all online website and apps just doesn't make sense otherwise.
And now it would be fair to sue websites that claim to be child safe and have opted in, if they turn out not to be.
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