[rollcat]

Technological solutions to societal problems just don't work.

Some $EVIL technology being fashioned to harm individuals isn't to blame - the companies behind that technology are. You can pile up your geofencing rules, the real solution lies somewhere between you deleting the app and your government introducing better regulation.

[Swenrekcah]

By this logic technological “progress” can not cause societal problems?

Which of course it can so why can’t a part of the solution be technological?

[vacuity]

It can be, but I think practically it can't be. Maybe that doesn't fit into a nice logical statement, but there you have it. Or: when you build yourself a constantly-accelerating, never-stopping racecar and get on it, it's hard to build a steering wheel or brake pedal for it. Or or: it's a lot easier to get into a deep hole than to get out of one.

[kennywinker]

Geofencing around schools is the kind of thing you might see if government attempted to regulate this

[ClumsyPilot]

Don’t we geofence sale of alcohol and tobacco around schools?

[vkou]

I think vending machines dispensing whiskey shooters would be a great addition to any classroom.

People clearly want the product, and I would clearly stand to make a lot of money from it.

[kgwxd]

You want every (any?) app knowing your exact location at all times? That's not how we "geofence" the sale of physical goods.

[zonkerdonker]

I imagine this could be set up on the operating system side. All the apps would receive is a go/no go signal, not fine coordinates

[rollcat]

That would be a good start. I guess someone at Apple has already been brainstorming about it for a while. I still think geofencing is a poor bandaid to patch a problem we've created in the first place. Just like notification filtering rules, it's like liquor vendors referring you to addiction therapy.

[anon84873628]

Or maybe the schools just don't let kids bring phones in at all.

[ClumsyPilot]

That’s the same geofencing by another authority

[palmotea]

> Technological solutions to societal problems just don't work.

Ehhh, that's just a poorly thought out slogan whose "truth" comes from endless repetition. Societal problems can have technical origins or technical enablers. In which case a technical solution might work to make things better.

So no, there's no technical solution to "people being mean to each other," but there is a technical solution to, say, "people being meaner to each other because they can cloak themselves with anonymization technology."

[rollcat]

> Societal problems can have [...] technical enablers.

That was my point.

> [...] there is a technical solution to, say, "people being meaner to each other because they can cloak themselves with anonymization technology."

I've never used (or even heard of) YikYak before, but what solution are you suggesting exactly? De-anonymisation? How would you achieve that? Suppose you have a magical^W technological de-anonymising wand, how would that not cut both ways?

So YikYak enabled geofencing, to alleviate the problem they've caused in the first place? But let's suppose they didn't do that.

How could I, as an average parent trying to protect my child, employ such a solution on my own? Could my tech-savvy neighbor help me somehow? Is there a single person outside of YikYak who can build a solution that any parent could use?