Comment on Australia says platforms like Steam and Roblox have 'significant' child safety gaps
Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Okay so… all the people who are saying “supervise your kid”. Keep in mind that a lot of parents aren’t tech savvy. So often they don’t know the difference from a basic single player no online game and something where you interact with strangers. And the parental controls on every system are different. So it ends up being an all or nothing choice for these parents.
Add to that, kids these days socialize online a lot. My teen plays lots of teamwork games with her irl friends. And that is great for the development of social skills.
I happen to work from home, and in tech, so I am usually in the same room on a computer. Easy supervision. But other parents don’t have it so easy.
Keep in mind that a lot of parents aren’t tech savvy
This is a choice that they make. Just like they choose to have children, they could choose to educate themselves on how better to supervise them. But they don’t want to, because it’s easier to blame externalities.
Yeah. No. Not everyone has the ability to be tech savvy.
On top of that, the controls are very weak. I’m very tech savvy, and there are things I can’t stop my kids from doing on their devices. Mainly because the device maker isn’t incentivized to make it possible for the control software to stop those things.
It always sounds good on paper, but when you try to actually use it, you find out how bad it really is. Plus, each game has it’s own set of controls, and then each device…
Not everyone has the ability to be tech savvy.
This is not true. Everyone has the ability to be tech savvy, except perhaps people with severe learning disabilities. Which, if that is the case, they shouldn’t be having children, thus making them irrelevant to this discussion.
People have to care enough to actually try to learn. Learning tech is not difficult. But too many people don’t care enough to want to even try. Because trying takes effort, and people these days only do whatever is easiest.
I mean, why actually parent your kid when you can sit them down in front of an iPad all day and make the government create laws that make businesses and schools responsible for raising them? Why take on the responsibility of your conscious choice to create a new human when you can just shove it all onto someone else who can take the blame when that inevitably fails? Kids take up your free time; why deal with that when you can drop them into the daycare called Roblox and then do whatever you actually wanted to do without needing to supervise your kid?
Additionally, sometimes you can’t have a certain kind of parental control on something, thats true. The solution? Either the kid can use it while the parent actively watches them, or they aren’t allowed to use it at all. Kid is visiting webpages they aren’t supposed to? DNS block those sites. RaspberryPi community might even have something like a PiHole but for blocking outgoing network traffic to certain URLs, or maybe even a PiHole might work for that, IDK. Everything has a work around, but there are ways to make things difficult for someone that isn’t eventually going to end up a computer science major.
Agreed onthe case that everyone can become more tech savvy. Disagreed regarding the intellect-based eugenics argument.
Everyone has the ability to be tech savvy, except perhaps people with severe learning disabilities. Which, if that is the case, they shouldn’t be having children, thus making them irrelevant to this discussion.
oh I see, good old-fashioned eugenics
Oh I get it, you somehow know what everyone can do. And you get to say who should and shouldn’t have kids. Wait, are you God? No. Okay then, get off your soapbox and live in the real world. Can’t believe you think knowing what DNS is should be a requirement for having kids.
Maybe not everyone can be tech savvy to the same degree, but everyone can be at least a little more so than they currently are. But it takes effort and willingness to learn. “I’m not good at this stuff” is too often used as an excuse instead of a motivator. Nobody wants to learn how, they just want someone else to fix it for them.
That’s not to say that platforms don’t have any issues, because they do. But supervision is also something that’s severely lacking.
Most parents have a list a mile long of things they have to learn to raise their kids. There is only so much effort to go around. Most of the ones I know have tried to manage these things, but not only are there so many different sets of controls, but they are always changing. And of course what if the kid is at a friends house. Do you expect mom and dad to tag along so they can supervise? And when does the kid learn to be independent. You can’t win as a parent. You are either accused of helicopter parenting or not putting in enough effort. And really, these companies have teams of specialist trying to make their product as addictive and enticing to kids as possible. You expect parents to be able to fight that on hundreds of fronts a day. Kids will find a way no matter what parents do.
It’s fucking 2026. Not tech savvy? That’s on them.
You do realize plenty of them were born and raised without the internet, right? There is a big difference between people raised with the internet and those not. Plus, parental controls are not even an after thought for must companies. They are a “we need something to claim we have parental controls”. Most of them just plain suck. Then you have different controls for different games, and different devices… even the tech savvy struggle. Plus the controls often have easy workarounds.
Again, it is 2026. Who the fuck is having kids now that was born and raised without the internet?
Um, me. No internet until I got to college. And even then, I was one of the early ones to get into it. It technically existed before that, but it wasn’t much of a thing. If we got stuck on a game on our Commodore 64s we had to buy a magazine or order a hint book. I have two kids who I still need to manage parental controls for. And most of the people I grew up with still have kids at home. Same for the ones I went to college with. And I’m not even 50 yet.
Keep in mind that a lot of parents aren’t tech savvy.
not a valid excuse. low-tech solutions can work just as well as high-tech ones.
I recently gave my eldest a laptop with steam installed. I was able to set play schedules, time limits, and even shared specific games from my own library. all other access is locked down. except chat, because there weren’t any controls for it (from what I saw). so, I added myself to their list and had a “chat” session with them to show them how it worked.
I then explained to them how dangerous this can be and how some people online might want to hurt them. so the rule is, don’t talk to anyone unless you know them IRL and to come to me if anyone chats with them first.
low-tech solution and it builds trust with minimal risk.
Are you expecting parents ro tag along when their kid geso over to a friends house as a low tech solution?
And you highlighted that chat didn’t have any controls… but now imagine a parent who doesn’t even know what steam is. They likely also don’t know it even has a chat feature.
Then let’s add that many middle schoolers and up are handed a chromebook at school that they get to take home. And it’s protections are pretty weak. But the kid needs it to do homework. So you are saying that parents should be sitting with them every second they are on any device. Sorry son, you can’t do your homework right now because I have to make dinner. That’s unreasonable.
I don’t understand why some of you want to give corporations a pass, and put all the blame on the parents.
Are you expecting parents ro tag along when their kid geso over to a friends house as a low tech solution?
no, I’m expecting their kids will understand what is acceptable behavior and make choices that are expected of them. I’m also expecting parents to talk with other parents and let them know what’s strictly off limits, and if that’s a problem provide alternative solutions like allowing your kids friends to hang out at your home instead.
And you highlighted that chat didn’t have any controls… but now imagine a parent who doesn’t even know what steam is. They likely also don’t know it even has a chat feature.
as a parent do you know how to care for a child that has leukemia? no? then I guess in your opinion children just have to suffer because their guardian doesn’t know what to do. if a parent can learn how to care for a child with cancer, you can learn how chat works.
Then let’s add that many middle schoolers and up are handed a chromebook at school that they get to take home. And it’s protections are pretty weak.
go to a better school. I pen tested my kids Chromebook, it’s pretty rock solid and everything seemed to be controlled directly by the google school account management.
But the kid needs it to do homework. So you are saying that parents should be sitting with them every second they are on any device.
you should be doing this anyway to help guide and teach them. if you can’t even do that then why did you even have children?
Sorry son, you can’t do your homework right now because I have to make dinner. That’s unreasonable.
as a parent it’s your responsibility to make the time for them. if you can’t do that it doesn’t make you a bad parent necessarily, but it does make you an asshole.
I don’t understand why some of you want to give corporations a pass, and put all the blame on the parents.
because a corporation is about as responsible as a methed out drug dealer that just got out of prison. would you trust your child with that kind of person or are you just too stupid to understand why it’s a poor choice?
from your tone you’re either a child yourself or just a really shitty person who didn’t understand the level of responsibility required to have children.
be better.
You must be a bot. Only a bot could deliver those contradictions in one message.
boonhet@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Ah fair enough then, let’s instead have invasive ID checks on every single online thing so nobody can have privacy online.
Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Id checks don’t do anything. They are a joke to fake. I was just responding to all the people who think it’s so easy to “just supervise” your kids. They probably don’t have kids.