also bar users under the age of 18 from accessing the internet from 10pm to 6am.
Meanwhile, a tiered system will mean those under the age of eight will be permitted a maximum of 40 minutes of usage a day, with up to two hours permitted for 16 and 17-year-olds.
Children aged between eight to 16 will have their time limit capped at one hour. ‘Teenager mode’
The proposed reforms are open to public feedback as part of a consultation process scheduled to run until Sept 2.
If you actually read the thing it’s fine. It just requires phone manufacturers include a parental control function that is CAPABLE of those limits built in without charging extra for it. The parents still have to turn it on and can exempt apps from it or not set it up at all.
The most “authoritarian” part is online services with recommendations are “encouraged” (not actually required) to set up separate age algorithms. Algo for 3 year olds they recommend to be mostly audio and not ADHD video, algo for 8 year olds educational only, 12 year olds “positive” entertainment, 16 year olds “age appropriate”. And they want app store recommendations to not advertise lootbox games at kids.
This is reasonable and I’d like to have features like those to control time my (future) kids will have on their smartphone (when they are old enough for one). Also, informative post, thank you.
Those things already exist, they just can be broken if your kid is smart enough. For me if they spend the time learning enough coding/base computer knowledge to break out of the box then I will applaud them and keep visually monitoring them and having regular conversations about online safety and privacy like I always have intended.
My parents did this, but it was way back right after we got out of dial up and I was already a teenager or very close to it and trying my hand at programming my own games. My mom got the software out of some bargain bin and the point was to limit screen time and stop certain programs from launching. I realized if I completely broke it my mom would probably realize, as it had a reporting function. So I went in and changed the unit from “minute” to hour. So if I was on the computer for 3 hours and my mom looked at it would say 3 minutes, she didn’t check those logs much anyway, but the few times she did I was just like “needed to search something on Ask Jeeves for homework real quick”. It actually took my mom more time to install the software then it took me to make that change… probably because that was a time when people actually still read through the Terms & Conditions…
Frankly, I wish my sister would do this for my nieces. Their addiction to TikTok is extraordinarily troubling, for several reasons.
Thanks. This is the kind of comment I originally went to reddit for. Good that I didn’t click the link
How it will work is thdt if you don’t use it, your social credit score will be affected or your kid’s teacher/class monitor will include it in their spy reports. This will prevent you from entering your preferred university or from joining the party later in life
That last sentence is the only true one AFAIK. Different reasons though, like dumbed down kids.
No, it’s related to teacher’s reporting on students. In China, you do have a permanent record and your schoolteacher is the first person who’s adding to it. You have a class monitor, who is chosen by a teacher or by class referendum, (I can’t remember which), and his/her job is communication between classmates and teachers. Secondary function is reporting on classmates’ personal lives. This continues from elementary school thru university.