Gotta love it. Akin to Silicon Valley-ites ensuring their own children don’t have access to the technologies they go into the office to create and propagate every day.
Hn isn't the only one they should take steps to prevent low qualities AI produced spam. Everyone should. But since we're at hn, it makes sense they are talking about hn
I would expect most automotive engineers don't let their children drive the cars they go to the office to create and propagate every day. Because... they're children.
> I would expect most automotive engineers don't let their children drive the cars they go to the office to create and propagate every day. Because... they're children.
On the other hand, most parents don't let their children drive cars either and yet they let their children access those technologies.
Another way in which that analogy doesn't work is that it's illegal for children to drive cars, but it's not illegal for children to access those technologies.
Furthermore, these technologies are being created and modified in a way that are specifically attractive and addictive for children (as well as adults) and they are constantly being further optimized for that criteria as well, almost every day (in a manner of speaking).
I think the poster above meant that e.g. engineers are Meta are paying very good money so their children go to private schools where they confiscate phones. Or that they dont buy phones at all for their kids until they turn like 12, instead pay a lot of money so they go to private tutors, have nannies, do all kinds of after school programmes. Whereas kids from poor families cannot afford these or to keep watch of their kids 24/7 (because they need to work), so these kids will hang on Facebook/Youtube/TikTok/.. all day
The opposing argument is that they are designing things not for other people's children, but for other adults. Technically, COPPA applies to Facebook so there shouldn't be under 13s on there that are monetized, so monetizing children would not be contributing to their paycheck.
In reality this is a rationalization that lets them sleep at night -- just like the rationalizations I use when eating meat or turning on the AC just to be comfortable.
Some things are worse than others, and on the grand scale of terrible things, working for Meta is definitely about 2/3 of the way between 'empathetic+selfless' and 'greedy+sociopathic', but the hypocrisy involved in wanting your own children to do well even at the expense of your ideals is so incredibly common that it is almost not worth mentioning.