[cynicalpeace]

kids simply shouldn't be looking at a screen, AI-generated or not.

Screen time for kids (and adults for that matter!) should be way way scaled back. That falls on the parents.

Bad parents give their kids phones and tablets and that's a hill I will die on.

[untitled-now]

I guess it depends on the age of the kid , if a kid is 11-12-13 yo , you can hardly do anything about it. I remember of how I was at that age , now I am 38.

[cynicalpeace]

Actually, you can. If parents are somehow powerless by the time their kids achieve some independence, again, that's bad parenting.

[solumunus]

Ours conditionally get extremely limited and supervised screen time. I feel this is the way to do it.

[cynicalpeace]

Hm, what do you mean by "extremely limited and supervised"?

I think absolute 0 is best for as long as possible. If you never introduce them to the drug, they'll never have the craving for it.

That's obviously difficult, practically, and we like movies, so we'll watch about a movie a week... but even I feel that is too much.

[solumunus]

They’re 4 and 3, currently it’s probably 30 minutes every other week for the older one. She doesn’t really ask for it yet, just a treat when we feel like it. We’ll also use them on the odd occasion we’re doing long travel.

If you’re including regular TV, sounds like you are, they watch significantly more of that. At least some daily. I don’t think it’s nearly as damaging or addictive compared to phone/pad. It barely holds their attention a lot of the time and they would rather play.

[cynicalpeace]

parent-to-parent: this is slippery slope territory

just imo, I can't control you. God bless your family :)

[keybored]

Back in my kid days we had friends who had game consoles and PCs. I know it’s quaint now but we watched each other play and played on the same computer or TV. There wasn’t a way to avoid tainting our minds no matter how much they tried to protect us from duh screens. Okay I guess if they raised us like some rural homeschooling Christians, but for some reason people will complain about that kind of parenting too.

[cynicalpeace]

"rural homeschooling Christians"

Hey i like that!

[dmos62]

Many parents find parenthood difficult and are happy that something distracts their kid. Further, kids that tend to get more addicted to stuff like this tend to live in stressful circumstances.

It's easy to say be a better parent, or produce a better environment for your kid, but it's not as easy to help people with that. If we can make social media healthier for everyone, that's a big deal.

[macintux]

Many parents grew up with TVs as their screens. It's a reasonable extrapolation to think that their kids will be fine with devices as their screens.

[hylaride]

I've thought about this, too. The difference is that for most of us, TV shows ended at the top/bottom of the hour. I grew up watching morning cartoons in the 1980s starting at 6am, but the times that the shows ended reminded me that it was time to get dressed, eat, etc.

Now, all the video services have feedback loops where they can determine what keeps people glued and provide more of that. Some "programs" like cocomelon have dialled that up to 11.

The only defence is the terrible parental controls and/or taking devices away. That almost always results in "fights".

[cynicalpeace]

The best defense is to not introduce it to them.

not a perfect defense, but a very good one.

[wiseowise]

TVs didn't create echo chambers tailored to a person.

[macintux]

I didn't say it was an accurate extrapolation.

[cynicalpeace]

"If we can make cocaine healthier for everyone, that's a big deal" technically true, but also, don't use cocaine.

I get parents use it to babysit their kids. That's bad parenting. I'm a parent. I know it's not easy, and tempting to use it.

But you're not supposed to yield to those temptations. Part of being a leader, which is what being a parent is, is sucking it up.

[dmos62]

Social media is not inherently predatory. Even between different providers Instagram/Facebook/TikTok/Youtube you find extremely different approaches in respect to that. Instagram is the worst, in my experience. You can bake in algorithm behaviors that uplift, educate, help you not become addicted. Chinese TikTok for kids was once rumored to be like that.

And, yes, you can regulate cocaine too. There's nothing stopping us from taking the business away from drug-dealers and having actual health professionals distribute it in sensible ways.

[cynicalpeace]

"don't do drugs, kids" is essentially my message, do you agree or not?

idc how potentially beneficial screens may be, in the future (now?) we will start treating screens like smoking

Some of us are still in the "smoking can be good for you stage"

[dmos62]

I disagree. I don't want kids to abbuse drugs, smoke, drink, or doomscroll. But, what do you accomplish from saying "don't do it"? You don't want to take away anyone's agency, right? Further, this is not only about kids, people of all ages are susceptible to these patterns of behavior.

My message is basically, make it non-taboo, educate, give people tools to manage their behavior, prosecute predatory behaviors. To regulate social media, we can heavily regulate ads in social media; make ad algos, feed algos, recommendation engines transparent by law, in a way inspectable by individuals as well as journalists; put legal constraints on what these algos can do; use cryptography to get rid of fake accs and bots, without compromising anyone's privacy.

[cynicalpeace]

"Don't take away agency!" proceeds to recommend the government take away agency

the best thing that can be done right now, rather than waiting for a broken government to fix our problems, is to admit to ourselves and parents that kids should not receive phones or iPads

it's not a good thing! taboos serve a purpose and it absolutely should be a cultural taboo.

[bad_haircut72]

do you have kids?

[cynicalpeace]

yes, several, lmao

[delis-thumbs-7e]

I kinda tend to agree with you. Today I watched Adam Neely’s latest video on Berkekey teaching AI songwriting (no I didn’t made that up unfortunately) and he mentions how there is a class element to AI. It’s not dissimilar to how none of the silicon valley oligarchs give their children smart phones or let them use social media.

Wealthier and more educated parents have more time and money to devoute to their kids education, hobbies, vacations etc. If you are single care mom working 10-12h shifts each day like mine (like mine), how the hell is it even possible to watch constantly what your kids do alone sfter school, or find the energy to do so when you are home? Does being poor and divorced make you a bad parent? Also you have no idea what content kids are being offered unless you are there next to them - I’m almost forty (no kids) and I have no idea what apps kids use or what is “cool” to them. No wonder boomers let their kids hang around in Habbo Hotel unsupervised. It’s just some kids video game right?

So as much I would just like to blame bad parenting I think we need laws and regulations on this stuff. We completely dropped the ball as a society on social media, we can’t let the same happen with AI.