Google confirms it notifies children if parents are monitoring their accounts

Yeah not going to lie this probably will actually protect kids in the long run than undermine parental authority. Think about if a kid is LGBT and in the closet, but their parents are bigots. I wouldn't want my parents knowing what I'm looking up, especially if I know they would kick me out of the house.

 

Another "conservative" OP calling for big government intervention against free speech and private property rights.

 

This is pretty pathetic of Google. Democrats, especially progressive liberals, seem to have an insatiable hunger to control everything, which is ironic since they seem to scream a lot about their imaginary loss of freedoms under Trump.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and I believe it's time that some big companies need to be broken up, Google and Amazon immediately come to mind. Yeah, I'm a free market kind of guy, but there comes a time when certain things just need to change.

Oh, and one of the things I really don't like about Google is how their phones listen to every word I say and then throw ads at me for what I was just talking about. Does Google give people the choice to opt out of that?

 

You are complaining that they want control . . . of THEIR OWN PROPERTY? . . . while you are the one suggesting that the government take control of their property so that you can have your way? No, you aren't a "free market kind of guy," and you are guilty of exactly what you are accusing "progressive liberals" of. I'm glad your insatiable hunger for control over private property will continue to fail so that those of us who actually value the free market can have a good chuckle.

 

The issue is that Google is telling KIDS that their own PARENTS are monitoring them. Google is making some kinda strange assumption that it's the kids who are actually responsible and not the parents. Maybe I'm wrong here, but I'm pretty sure it's the parents paying for said internet and maybe said computer. And, even if the kid is on a Chromebook the school donated, then even that was paid for by the parent's taxes.

I'll tell you right now I DO monitor my students activity during Zoom meetings. There's a program that allows me to do just that and I tell the kids I can see what tabs they have open and what's on their screens. I can even close their tabs and send messages saying "Not during school time!" and close the tab if they're playing Mega Man 3 or suchlike during school time.

 

Google is informing them about THEIR service, THEIR product, which I don't think the parents are paying for.

 

You can set up your own Google account if you are 13 or older. The kid in the OP is 7. Some adult - presumably the parents although it could have been the school - legally had to get the account for him and is responsible for it.

 

So some parents are mad google isn't letting them spy on their kids secretly?

 

It still isn't a service the parents are paying for, which was your initial argument.

 

Are you trying to put your kids behind bars?

 

Fair enough - although I think I also said it was the parents paying for the INTERNET and not paying for Google.

Okay, let's put it this way: who is responsible for this 7 year-olds account - him or his parents? Who should Google be communicating with - a kid who is unable to enter into any kind of legal transaction or the parents who can?

 

They can communicate pretty much whatever they want to whomever they want when it comes to their product. This is a false dichotomy. They don't have to choose to only communicate with one or with the other; they are perfectly capable of communicating with both. And it is paid for by advertisers, not end-users.

 

The actions of those who know they are being watched may be different. Do you have kids?

 

So it is more important to catch and punish them for doing something bad . . . than to actually dissuade them from doing that bad thing in the first place? That makes no sense. Ultimately, though, if people don't like the product, they don't have to use it.

 

That's a good thing right because they won't be doing nefarious things when they know their parents are watching. Seems like some people are more concerned with catching their kids in the act.

 

The way people are describing it you would think they are trying to set up a sting operation on their kids. I can't imagine all of the spy cameras in their household and tracking devices.

 

Do you have kids?

 

I'll answer your question if you answer the one I already asked you. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that maybe, just maybe, some of the people at Google have kids. Just guessing, here.

 

But don't you think that it is better that the child is told that he is being monitored by his parents? Parental control systems are not fail proof. A child knowing that his searches can be monitored by his parents may deter him looking up dodgy sites

 

Isn't that one of the points in telling the child that he maybe monitored? It will make him think twice about accessing dodgy sites

 

Here's what he's getting at. Would you like Google to do an end-run around your authority as a parent and talk to your kids without you being aware of it?

 

I don't see how it would be a violation of my authority in the first place. And I don't support using government force to remove their ACTUAL authority over their own product.

 

That is not relevant. Do you have kids?

 

Tell you what, you go with that. If someone doesn't have kids, they don't get to have an opinion about this. And if you don't run a multi-billion dollar tech company, you don't get to have an opinion about how they run their products. Wow, that was easy.

 

I think the kids should be made aware that their search history is being monitored - I just feel that Google should be informing the parents to inform the kid and not Google itself taking upon itself parental responsibilities. Then again, look who's talking - society has placed a lot of parental responsibilities upon schools and teachers over the past fifty-plus years now.

If it means anything, I tell my parents that yes, I am monitoring their kids internet activity while on school time. By the way, said program that monitors where they are on the net? It shuts off after school hours. I actually just checked - can't see a thing anyone is doing online, and don't tell me ALL my students are off the net right now!