this post was submitted on 04 May 2025
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China turns on ‘minors mode’ to keep kids safe online (www.theregister.com)
submitted 1 day ago by Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

But who is collecting the stats?

Here are my issues with this:

  1. The service needs to know if it's a minor or adult
  2. Service needs to put that data somewhere, and I highly doubt it's on the user's machine
  3. There's no way this isn't tied to the user's identity

There are internet filters you can buy already that the user controls. Why not just use that?

[–] WalnutLum@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

there are internet filters you can buy

Seems like that's exactly what this is, it's a mode that you turn on on the phone and it uses a government supplied list of vetted websites for the kid to visit.

Interestingly the way this feature set reads out is exactly the same way that Nintendo's parental controls work.

I realize that this being the Chinese government, them keeping usage stats has connotations that go beyond the data itself... But in a country with a more liberal government I'd rather have them keep records of my kids' internet usage than a private company. The idea being that you can pass protections around that data. (Not that that seems to be stopping the current US government so maybe that's a pipe dream).

Ideal is, of course, completely on your own hardware (the device or your server at home), but between this and a system where Apple/Google/Nintendo does all this instead I'd prefer the government method.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

government supplied list

Does the government know which sites users attempted to access? Or is it strictly a static list with everything handled on the device?

But in a country with a more liberal government I’d rather have them keep records of my kids’ internet usage than a private company.

I'd rather neither. Why does the supplier need usage stats? Just provide a list and keep it at that, with an option to request a site be allowed through (that obviously would go to the supplier).

But maybe that's me in the US speaking. I don't trust my government with that information, and I also don't trust countries I visit to have that info either.

between this and a system where Apple/Google/Nintendo does all this instead I’d prefer the government method.

I don't really have a preference since I reject both as unacceptable. I prefer my approach: no filters, and I only provide access to devices if I trust my kids to follow the rules, and if I catch them breaking the rules, they lose access to the device.

[–] person420@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 3 hours ago

I suspect you don't have kids? Most schools require a laptop (usually Chromebooks). What do you do then other than parental controls?