What made you angry today?

[D'Snowth]

The only reason COPPA exists is because millennial and Gen z parents don’t even bother looking after their children - they just completely rely on technology to be the babysitter, and look where THAT eventually leads to!

To be fair, it's always been easy for kids to accidentally find themselves on questionable websites or see questionable contenton the internet . . . heck, this actually happened to me a few times as a kid in the late 90s when home internet was really starting to take off whenever I'd visit webpages and fan sites about certain edgy cartoons like COW AND CHICKEN, or even anime like POKEMON. I can remember one particular old C&C site that somehow took me to a page about how gratuitous sexual images really help sell products (with a picture of a woman's hands tied behind her back while wearing nothing but a American flag swimsuit), or how I somehow ended up on a site full of hentai pics when researching Pokemon. Needless to say, incidents made my mom leery of my internet activity, even though, again, these were complete accidents.

 

[LittleJerry92]

But the thing is technology wasn’t as big as it is now back then. With how much evolved parents of today are just quick to give their children phones or iPads at very young ages and just let computers be the babysitter.

 

[D'Snowth]

True. The major difference, however, is since then, technology has all kinds of filters and blocking features and functions that can restrict access to such content . . . of course, it's the personal responsibility of the parents to actually enable such filters and blocks with passwords/passcodes that they don't share with their children so there's no possible way for them to access such content (and it's also a good idea to have adblockers - I remember before adblockers were a thing, and even sites like Yahoo Mail having banner ads with scantily-clad bikini girls posing on a beach) . . . of course, they're usually too lazy to bother with such, so they'll just blame White Todd for their children stumbling onto X-rated junk.

Way to go, Todd!

 

[LittleJerry92]

The white Todd video pretty much represented the left’s mentality in a nutshell.

But yes, there are definitely filters to help you out, and I used to have cyber patrol when my 11 year old self became more interested in porn that partake to the kinks I admire, resulting in the family computer getting a virus. And I had to deal with cyber patrol until I was 14 years old and yes, you can imagine, I since took full advantage of (safe) porn sites on my computer.

 

[D'Snowth]

I don't know about that.

But yes, we too have had our share of viruses like that . . . from where my dad would secretly look at porn and stuff. One time, my mom walked in on him watching porn on TV, next thing we knew, she took a hammer and smashed the screen into a zillion tiny little glass shards (back in the days CRT TVs were still a thing). Yeah.

 

[Any Del]

I remember back when I was in elementary school I typed in "Naked Swords" just out of curiosity and my love for swords and lo and behold it was images of gay porn.

 

[D'Snowth]

Well, you know, there's this movie called FREE WILLY; it's about a man who rounds around town flashing his *****, and . . . oh yeah, it's a kids movie about a whale.

 

[fuzzygobo]

A girl may be physically able to bear children by 15, but that doesn’t mean she’s emotionally ready. If you haven’t finished your education, you have no job, and if the father doesn’t stick around, it’s going to be really tough to raise that kid.

I might be the exception, but I got my driver’s license at 17. Within a year I was driving a truck all over New Jersey and New York. I had a very good paying job working for my dad, but one of the requirements was you had to drive, and know how to drive a stick. Shifting your feet between the gas and the clutch.
This was 1986, making $10 an hour, as opposed to $4.25 flipping burgers. I had a college education to pay for. Ready or not.

one less distraction, there were no cell phones back then, so texting and driving didn’t exist.
But I was ready to drive. My parents expected it from me, and more importantly, I expected it from me. There was gonna be a lot of driving in my future, better get used to it.

 

[LittleJerry92]

Today

 

[fuzzygobo]

And I agree, technology is no substitute for being a good parent.
I was blown away the first time I saw a toddler with a phone. How early do you want to start turning your kid into a zombie?
The thing I’ve noticed with phones over the last twenty years, how addictive they are, and how people have grown so dependent on them. Take away a kid’s phone for a day and watch them freak out.

Maybe because I’m old enough now, butif I was a parent, I probably would be all over them to make sure they’re not viewing smut.
Just like a teenage girl can get pregnant, it doesn’t mean they’re old enough to handle it.

Way back in ancient times, it was easy to get your hands on Playboy or some other girlie mag. Now online the same access exists, and you can’t just leave a kid to his own devices.

As a parent you don’t want to be the bad guy, or be a stick in the mud, but first and foremost you have to protect your kids. An ounce of prevention.