primortal wrote:
Sadly regardless of what you do in aspects of getting a "dump" phone you child will just borrow his friends phone to get what he needs. Maybe some counseling is in order for him.
VZW if you're reading this you might want to look into adding this type of feature for content blocking being all phones have to go through your network in order to get to the internet so it's shouldn't be too hard to set up content filtering per device and charge a monthly fee. .
It's been shown time and time again content blocks do not work. Not all porn sites have obvious porn sounding names. Even if it blocks 95% of porn that still leaves 5%. The best thing to do is the parent to have a TALK with their kid about this topic. And not just "I forbid you from looking at porn" talk. A REAL talk. A talk that should have happened already. Oh and not that teens need to be looking at porn but unless a kid already has mental issues him/her looking at dirty pics isn't going turn him/her into some uncontrollable sex fiend.
Agreed but proper content filtering doesn't go by site names. Companies like WebSense and Blue Coat use actually human beings/automated process to properly categorize sites.
Also agreed that a nice talk with the teenager needs to happen if it hasn't already. Nobody but the parent knows (I hope) the mental state of the child specially younger teenagers. If they see porn as the norm all kind of things can go wrong as they get older.
primortal wrote:
Agreed but proper content filtering doesn't go by site names. Companies like WebSense and Blue Coat use actually human beings/automated process to properly categorize sites.
Counties like Australia tried blocking porn at the ISP level they gave up on it when it was found to not work.
Well when you go with you own black listing schema things kind of go wrong (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Australia#Two_blacklists ,http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1888011,00.html).
Correct. However, you have to have the correct type phone for them to work. He has the new windows phone. NOTHING I can find will block it. If he didn't use his phone (and yes I can prove it) for school work..... it would be gone!
Well you have the be the parent and have a talk with your kid. At the end of the day if it's an issue you have to take away the. replace it with a basic phone.
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Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator
Unfortunately, blocking of "all" subversive or age inappropriate content websites is virtually impossible short of, as with sex, abstinence, even on a home PC. There are some options in the Android marketplace; content filters, tracking/monitoring software, net nannys. The only prevailing downfall, and this is all of them that I've seen, is that they can be turned off by the phone user. Makes for a pointless exercise.
Beyond that, communication with your children is beyond vital. As a parent of 3 myself, I share your angst at the unwillingness of the carriers to be more proactive on this, and the apparent indifference displayed. No, I don't "blame" per say, the carriers, Google, Microsoft, or Apple for the problems this foments, but I certainly do suggest they should work more with parents and schools on an issue that will increasingly become more acute and epidemic.
On one hand, the knee-jerk, pat responses of "take the phone away", or "give them a basic phone" though obnoxious, and short-sighted, are accurate, while on the other, the carriers are actively pushing people into smartphones and are discouraging the purchase of basic phones, and THAT puts the ball of indifference back into the carriers court. I've been told by numerous reps (both CSRs and Tech reps) that the eventual goal IS to eliminate the basic phones altogether, so I'm hoping that some entity, be it a software company, carriers, Google, whoever, join in the fight to protect the children from things they neither need to see, nor are prepared for.
jsguero wrote:
On one hand, the knee-jerk, pat responses of "take the phone away", or "give them a basic phone" though obnoxious, and short-sighted, are accurate,
It's not knee jerk or short sighted. It's an actual solution. Verizon can't block porn. PERIOD. Even you blocked 99% with MILLIONS of websites out there that still leaves tens of thousands of choices. It's like anything, a phone, the TV, a car. If the kid can't be responsible you take it away and you teach them that there is a consequence to not doing what you are told. Better to learn that as a kid than as an adult.
If you recall, I did in fact agree with you. However, even if I remove from my children the devices in question, other less-responsible parents, or simply uninformed parents, will not be so proactive. So again, the "take it away" approach, while strictly accurate from a "letter of the law" perspective, will not solve the problem. I'm looking, as I'm sure most parents who care are, towards a larger picture than what's within my own doors.
Frankly, I do not know that there IS a solution, but I do know that a more active and forward participation by the folks who make the phones, the software, and the networks, would do wonders towards mitigation.
jsguero wrote:
If you recall, I did in fact agree with you. However, even if I remove from my children the devices in question, other less-responsible parents, or simply uninformed parents, will not be so proactive. So again, the "take it away" approach, while strictly accurate from a "letter of the law" perspective, will not solve the problem.
That THEIR problem not mine or yours. I am the parent, not some corporation or the government. I hate all the rules people want because lazy parents don't want to do their job.
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