Technology and Parental Controls

AT&T adds parental control options to cell phones

from WinCustomize Forums
I must admit that when ever I hear or read the words Parental Controls it in no way relates to what the words mean today. I get visions of me stading in front of my father with him saying "Do you understand?".

Have we changed so much as a society in the last 50 or 60 years that parents relinquish their control to technology?

I know everyone wants to know what rock I just crawled out from under. To answer the other questions, not married no kids.

So I take it that every piece of technology must or will have Parental Controls? Are we teaching any sort of responsiblity here? We must be teaching something, as adults if they drink and drive and get DWI/DUI's they can get a device installed in their vehicles that they have to breathe into before they can start it up. I wonder if that's just an extention of Parental Controls.

So the link is about how AT&T is coming to the rescue.

I apoligize, my Parental Controls were not set correctly, this is a Monday morning rant and it's Tuesday.   


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946 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
My father and your father would have got along well.  He said it.  I did it anyway.  I suffered the consequences. 

I parent the same way.  But just because we did it that way doesn't mean it was/is the best way.  I try to give my kids the freedom to hang themselves if they so please.  I do think though that the current state of technology makes it much harder to catch them in the act and modify behavior the way my father would have.

I agree with the article you linked to that setting time constraints for kids is a good thing.  One of my daughter is is up at all hours because someone texted her and she sleeps with the phone.  For a while we had her move her phone to the bathroom before bed and that worked fairly well but failed due to the fact that her alarm was the phone. 

Technology is no replacement for parents that are situationally aware but can be a real asset in the fight to raise good, healthy kids.
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I try to give my kids the freedom to hang themselves if they so please.


he he he

I am starting to think that the problem isn't the parental controls but the parents. Lets take all kids away from their stupid, biased, and brainwahsed parents. Then there may be hope in the future for the kids. As things are right now, if they follow their parents rules, they are doomed.   
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Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Hi Zubaz, It would appear that your father didn't do a bad job of appling parental control when needed and it also doesn't appear that it adversely affected your life.   

I guess that I need to get back under my rock, I still don't get it in my head that kids are allowed to take cell phones to school. Must be an age thing.   
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

My earliest memory of my father was being publicly humiliated by being dragged through the shopping strip [where we lived] by my ear ....at the ripe old age of 5.

Interestingly he was domineering, opinionated, chauvinist, racist and bigotted, though I don't believe he has hit any of his kids in the last 40 years or so....by that time psychological abuse was more effective.

Strangely, when he snuffed it last month he left a hole.

Ah, the stuff from which site Admins are made....

I've always found the most-heeded mistakes you will ever learn from are those you make yourself, so, as Zubaz said give them a little freedom to hang themselves.

Cotton-wool cossetting won't prepare them for adulthood.  Eventually they'll have to look after themselves and be answerable.

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well that paints a rather clear picture Jafo. Don't want to make light of what you told us, but it obviously made you the person you are today. I found out too like yourself, not matter what, they were our parents.

Not being a parent, my only experience comes from being in military service. After 30 years watching after 18 yr olds way from home for the first time you do form some opinions. Maybe that's why I like staying under my rock.