<story><title>Kids’ Apps Are Crammed With Ads</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/style/kids-study-apps-advertising.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ptd</author><text>How do you control the content your children are exposed to once they go to school?&lt;p&gt;I remember being shocked about a decade ago that a group of 3rd graders had seen The Hangover(a rated R movie) without the permission of their parents. When I asked how they were able to do this without their parents knowing, they almost laughed at me.&lt;p&gt;The idea that their parents could effectively censor the content they consumed was not something they understood. There was always someone with a phone, computer, laptop, USB key, DVD, etc.&lt;p&gt;When kids are young and you(or a loved one) has eyes on them 24&amp;#x2F;7 it’s easy to control their lives, and the content they are exposed to. I’m very curious as to how parents effectively censor the world for older kids who are around other kids, without turning into the dreaded “helicopter” parent.&lt;p&gt;It seems like an overwhelming challenge.</text></item><item><author>bpizzi</author><text>Father of two little guys of 7 &amp;amp; 5 here. Personal story below.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s no tablets at home, no games on parent&amp;#x27;s smartphones. They have access to technology thought. But we are a &amp;quot;NO ADS ALLOWED HERE&amp;quot; kind of home :)&lt;p&gt;Netflix is freely accessible on the only TV we have, during &amp;quot;opening hours&amp;quot;, so that they can choose actively their program and not be exposed to TV ads (the TV has only access to Netflix).&lt;p&gt;They can switch on a Raspberry with an emulator where they can play some games from the 80&amp;#x2F;90&amp;#x27;. But they have to enter one command on the little Bluetooth keyboard (and they do!).&lt;p&gt;And finally they can sit at the home&amp;#x27;s PC, start windows, ask parents to open their session and launch complex games such as Age Of Empire.&lt;p&gt;No internet access, only books for now.&lt;p&gt;When they happen to be exposed to TV ads at grand-parents home, for ex, you can really see what kind of behavior ads are ingraining in little brains: &amp;quot;I want this!&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;Why is this so short?&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;Why don&amp;#x27;t they tell the price?&amp;quot;. That&amp;#x27;s always an opportunity for me to educate them to what&amp;#x27;s actually happening before their eyes: &amp;quot;look guys, this is a company (some people at work) that&amp;#x27;s working to expose their products (toys) to your eyes, hoping that you will ask your parents to spend money to buy it. They&amp;#x27;re smart, but we are smarter!&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m very inclined to think that toddlers should not have access to tablets, moreover to mainstream games on Android&amp;#x2F;Iphone. My personnal guess is that It&amp;#x27;s not preparing them to mastering technology, it&amp;#x27;s preparing them to be &lt;i&gt;addicted&lt;/i&gt; to technology.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>MisterTea</author><text>I hate to break it to you but children being exposed to &amp;quot;unsavory&amp;quot; things outside of parental supervision is part of growing up. It&amp;#x27;s called street smarts.&lt;p&gt;Ever watch watch south park? Then you know who Kenny is and how dysfunctional his family is. Every kid meets a Kenny in their lifetime. They&amp;#x27;re the kid who knows where his parents porn stash is kept and by 13 is raiding their parents booze and drug stash. He&amp;#x27;s the kid whose house you go to watch R films and look at hustler magazines (I&amp;#x27;m dating myself here). They also most likely had a hacked cable box with the playboy channel. In their bedroom.&lt;p&gt;Of course your parents told you to stay away &amp;quot;from that boy&amp;quot;. But after school you tell your parents you&amp;#x27;re &amp;quot;going to John&amp;#x27;s house to study&amp;quot; but instead you and a few other friends meet up at &amp;quot;Kenny&amp;#x27;s&amp;quot; place ;-). Though, It&amp;#x27;s not all porn and bad things. It&amp;#x27;s just a great place to hang out and play ball or nintendo or whatever because no one is telling you to study or do homework. It&amp;#x27;s pure rebellious freedom and it&amp;#x27;s exciting.&lt;p&gt;You can&amp;#x27;t shield your kids forever. And the more you shield them the worse prepared they are for the harsh realities of the world. The best approach is to educate your kids of dangers and and hope for the best. Teach them about sex, drugs, alcohol, smoking, violence, abuse,  behavioral issues, etc. Make sure they know what can be potentially harmful. My mother and father did a good job of that so I knew when to hang back and say &amp;quot;no thanks&amp;quot;. I stayed away from drinking and drushguse my who adolescent life.</text></comment>
<story><title>Kids’ Apps Are Crammed With Ads</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/style/kids-study-apps-advertising.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ptd</author><text>How do you control the content your children are exposed to once they go to school?&lt;p&gt;I remember being shocked about a decade ago that a group of 3rd graders had seen The Hangover(a rated R movie) without the permission of their parents. When I asked how they were able to do this without their parents knowing, they almost laughed at me.&lt;p&gt;The idea that their parents could effectively censor the content they consumed was not something they understood. There was always someone with a phone, computer, laptop, USB key, DVD, etc.&lt;p&gt;When kids are young and you(or a loved one) has eyes on them 24&amp;#x2F;7 it’s easy to control their lives, and the content they are exposed to. I’m very curious as to how parents effectively censor the world for older kids who are around other kids, without turning into the dreaded “helicopter” parent.&lt;p&gt;It seems like an overwhelming challenge.</text></item><item><author>bpizzi</author><text>Father of two little guys of 7 &amp;amp; 5 here. Personal story below.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s no tablets at home, no games on parent&amp;#x27;s smartphones. They have access to technology thought. But we are a &amp;quot;NO ADS ALLOWED HERE&amp;quot; kind of home :)&lt;p&gt;Netflix is freely accessible on the only TV we have, during &amp;quot;opening hours&amp;quot;, so that they can choose actively their program and not be exposed to TV ads (the TV has only access to Netflix).&lt;p&gt;They can switch on a Raspberry with an emulator where they can play some games from the 80&amp;#x2F;90&amp;#x27;. But they have to enter one command on the little Bluetooth keyboard (and they do!).&lt;p&gt;And finally they can sit at the home&amp;#x27;s PC, start windows, ask parents to open their session and launch complex games such as Age Of Empire.&lt;p&gt;No internet access, only books for now.&lt;p&gt;When they happen to be exposed to TV ads at grand-parents home, for ex, you can really see what kind of behavior ads are ingraining in little brains: &amp;quot;I want this!&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;Why is this so short?&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;Why don&amp;#x27;t they tell the price?&amp;quot;. That&amp;#x27;s always an opportunity for me to educate them to what&amp;#x27;s actually happening before their eyes: &amp;quot;look guys, this is a company (some people at work) that&amp;#x27;s working to expose their products (toys) to your eyes, hoping that you will ask your parents to spend money to buy it. They&amp;#x27;re smart, but we are smarter!&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m very inclined to think that toddlers should not have access to tablets, moreover to mainstream games on Android&amp;#x2F;Iphone. My personnal guess is that It&amp;#x27;s not preparing them to mastering technology, it&amp;#x27;s preparing them to be &lt;i&gt;addicted&lt;/i&gt; to technology.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Rjevski</author><text>&amp;gt; How do you control the content your children are exposed to once they go to school?&lt;p&gt;Not OP, but in my opinion it should be pretty easy to control &lt;i&gt;undesirable&lt;/i&gt; content. Nobody likes ads; I see no reason for the kids to actively seek out ads once they know what ads really are.&lt;p&gt;As far as controlling &amp;quot;desirable&amp;quot; content like movies, games, etc, I&amp;#x27;m not sure it should be, but that&amp;#x27;s a rant for another day!</text></comment>