<story><title>Student rating app penalizes fifth-graders who need bathroom breaks</title><url>https://twitter.com/JoshSeim/status/1177402278895992834</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>kevinconroy</author><text>As a parent who has two kids who have ClassDojo, I can say that ClassDojo supports points for any teacher defined criteria. I this case I believe it was a teacher-defined point system, not the default app settings.&lt;p&gt;So while it’s all good to discuss gamification and the dark side of these things, it’s not  the apps designer that decided to negatively reinforce bathroom breaks, but their app did allow the teacher to set that up.&lt;p&gt;What other user defined settings and unintended dark patterns are out there?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jakobegger</author><text>As I see it, the problem with the app is not only that kids lose points for bathroom breaks. That&amp;#x27;s just the most outragous part, but it distracts from the core of the problem.&lt;p&gt;The problem is how this app is designed to enforce absolute discipline and completely disregards the students need for privacy.&lt;p&gt;Can you imagine how terrible it would be if you had a bad day, were a bit distracted in school, got yelled at by the teacher, only to have your mom text you to tell you off for not behaving in school?&lt;p&gt;The app would be just as bad without the bathroom break part.&lt;p&gt;As developers &amp;#x2F; product designers we can&amp;#x27;t always hide behind our users, by claiming that we can&amp;#x27;t influence how they use our products. Some products simply encourage bad behaviour, and we should take at least some responsibility for what people do with them.</text></comment>
<story><title>Student rating app penalizes fifth-graders who need bathroom breaks</title><url>https://twitter.com/JoshSeim/status/1177402278895992834</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>kevinconroy</author><text>As a parent who has two kids who have ClassDojo, I can say that ClassDojo supports points for any teacher defined criteria. I this case I believe it was a teacher-defined point system, not the default app settings.&lt;p&gt;So while it’s all good to discuss gamification and the dark side of these things, it’s not  the apps designer that decided to negatively reinforce bathroom breaks, but their app did allow the teacher to set that up.&lt;p&gt;What other user defined settings and unintended dark patterns are out there?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kelnos</author><text>This isn&amp;#x27;t gamification; this is a violation of a child&amp;#x27;s privacy, and teaches kids that if they don&amp;#x27;t toe the line and follow whatever arbitrary rules someone in power has designed for them, they get in trouble.  I&amp;#x27;m genuinely appalled that this even exists.  This is one step away from some kind of social credit system.</text></comment>