Have to ask, though..... don't you track your kids? I don't control their screens, for exactly this reason, but it's a complicated decision with a lot of downsides. Or, at least, two: I'm terrified about my son encountering porn, and I can't prevent him from staying up endlessly watching dumb shit on YouTube.
I don't track their offline physical whereabouts, no. I do have their devices pretty locked down in terms of limits on hours of use per day, ability to install apps (no socials!), smut-blocking, etc. But for me that's pretty much "set it & forget it" - so yes their device *usage* is being tracked, but my wife and I never check it. My focus in this piece was physical tracking, and specifically how it's intertwined with irrational safetyist paranoia about kids suffering grievous bodily harm in the real world. (I'll be revisiting this topic in a big way.) You're right though about how tracking online usage is complicated, and it's admittedly the flip side of the "Big Brother" coin. Maybe that's a tad hypocritical of me, but I justify it knowing the stats are clear that they're vastly more likely to suffer predatory psychological/emotional harm online than they are any physical harm IRL. As for dumb shit on YouTube, I've given up. I figure I watched so much dumb shit on TV, I have no right to judge. 🫠
Have to ask, though..... don't you track your kids? I don't control their screens, for exactly this reason, but it's a complicated decision with a lot of downsides. Or, at least, two: I'm terrified about my son encountering porn, and I can't prevent him from staying up endlessly watching dumb shit on YouTube.
I don't track their offline physical whereabouts, no. I do have their devices pretty locked down in terms of limits on hours of use per day, ability to install apps (no socials!), smut-blocking, etc. But for me that's pretty much "set it & forget it" - so yes their device *usage* is being tracked, but my wife and I never check it. My focus in this piece was physical tracking, and specifically how it's intertwined with irrational safetyist paranoia about kids suffering grievous bodily harm in the real world. (I'll be revisiting this topic in a big way.) You're right though about how tracking online usage is complicated, and it's admittedly the flip side of the "Big Brother" coin. Maybe that's a tad hypocritical of me, but I justify it knowing the stats are clear that they're vastly more likely to suffer predatory psychological/emotional harm online than they are any physical harm IRL. As for dumb shit on YouTube, I've given up. I figure I watched so much dumb shit on TV, I have no right to judge. 🫠
Welcome to the surveillance economy kids!