Posted by edent 4/13/2025
That's how I read it at least
The last two paragraphs talk about "harried parents", and "world doesn't revolve around children." sounds like having kids is a burden and resentful of the impact of people having kids on his life.
Its quite a lengthy rant about a minor UI inconvenience.
There is also a problem with the "never ask again" option. How long is never? Someone who does not have children now might well in a few years time.
It's quite a lengthy rant about prioritizing everytime inconvenience over a setting switch that could be enabled once, after a few years time.
World doesn't revolve about your children (or mine. And yes, I have them and yes, this is one of these mildly infuriating UX decisions).
Putting it into a programming context. Imagine you're a C++ developer. Wouldn't it be annoying if your text editor asked you every time you opened a project if you actually wanted to use Python instead.
Checks out I guess.
Or, yeah, because if my child can access streaming without a child lock, they may not recover from what they see.
Looks like we should protect each other as much as we can, using UI!
The push toward {fog,edge}-computing, new distributed LLM proposals like BrianknowsAI's DCI Network clearly show this trend. We need moldable systems not cages.
Some people also do the reverse and set up parental control profile on their own devices to get easier management and more granularity than the bog standard ones like screentime etc.
If anything, I wished it was more embraced.
Maybe first let them use fully open sourced computer so they know what is going on. Being on smart phone is like being a 2nd class citizen of computer. Let them use self-hosted app before using apps on smart phone alternatives. So they know what they are getting them selves into on the smart phone. Beside the with EFM harzard of these smart devices, it would be good to have kids focus more on real things when they are out about.
- adults also use these type of control on themselves (this very site has a setting for people who just don't want to stop by themselves)
- adults use these on other adults as well, and not just for security purposes
- falling back to a binary all or nothing seldom helps when it comes to education. I like your point on open source computers, but getting to learn a proper distance with a smartphone is also important and should be part of any kid's education IMHO, the same way they learn to cross the street or use electrical appliances. We don't tell them it's too complicated and put them in a cage until they're 18.
This is of course more expensive, since you have to buy a large storage drive, a disc reader and discs. But you have more control and rights with physical media than streaming; in practice no one can take your bits away.
If you are less scrupulous there are of course, other sources.
I lost my mother when I was very young, and I remember being in middle school and being told by a well-meaning teacher that institutions should be more considerate of people like me and stop observing mother's day because it's triggering or something, or brings back memories. This stuck with me because while I appreciated that they were trying to be considerate, it was a ridiculous, ill-conceived suggestion. I never forgot that I lost my mother, and pretending that everyone else also didn't have mothers wasn't helpful. It was actually harmful.
Netflix is often something that people share with family in social settings. Even people who don't have children, who lost children, or who hate children like this weird guy, have family situations that sometimes involve children and they want to pull up a children profile. Maybe there should be a setting this guy can set to hide this because it's so triggering to his anger, but what a lame thing to whine about.
If anything, I tend to witness more and more "anti-child" behaviours: hotels without children, restaurants without children, weddings without children. I don't have children and feel rather uncomfortable around them, but this trend just makes me sad.
Do you have zero pet peeves? Never annoyed by anything short of the lack of world peace? Never written a comment suggesting something is annoying? Or is this just typical internet snark, desperately trying to pass for clever insight?
The dude wrote a short blog post about something that annoys him and it’s fucking weird when people like you try to make that something bigger than it is.
Speaking of sad.
Maybe you're own mental health would improve (since this is repeatedly referenced as the reason for viewing nonsense media), along with that of your imaginary children?