Pete Hahnloser

Unemployed journalist, burner, raver, graphic artist and vandweller.

  • 71 Posts
  • 402 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 6th, 2023

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  • I never had kids of my own, but seeing what my stepkids got up to from 2009-2016 (they were 6 and 7 to start), I became very worried about how things had shifted to online interaction. They wouldn’t have their own computers for another couple of years, but I gave them my netbook (remember those?) once I’d gotten a tower built (UPS drop-shipped my old one, and that’s not a euphemism … thank god I had the presence of mind to remove the hard drives).

    It’s one thing to play SimCity for hours on end locally, which my parents allowed. It’s something entirely different to foist the whole of the internet on them without having concepts of online hygiene.



















  • I grew up in the '80s. It was absolutely unnecessary then, and a pressing need has not since developed. “Be home by dinner” was perfectly serviceable when I’d head off on my bike to see which friends were available to hang out with. Often, I’d be invited to dinner, and the parents would talk so mine knew where I was, usually followed by an invite for a sleepover since it was by then dark.

    Abductions of and assaults on kids are statistically far more likely to happen with a known party. This tracking obsession stunts normal childhood experiences, and I’ve not seen any study conclude that kids are overall safer from this level of surveillance.

    If uncle Bob is molesting you but your parents trust him, this is all theatre. “At least they’re safe … they’re at Bob’s” my ass. But god forbid you meet up with your friends to build a tree fort outside of an arbitrary radius.