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“Tik tok in china is nothing like tik tok in america. the algos are different, the content is different, it shuts off at night to make sure that kids stop scrolling and go to bed or do their homework. instead of the culture carnival of american influencer insanity with its impossible standards and lunacy lessons, it instills ideas like “learn math!” “become a doctor!” and “raise a family!”

Yep: China uses TikTok to make our children stupid. China uses TikTok to make their children smart: https://old.bitchute.com/video/MW67NcNlJhFs (90Seconds)

Giving China a direct line to their adversary’s children is madness. When you give a child access to the internet what you’re actually doing is giving the world access to your child. It’s mind pestilence pouring from a black mirror that is constantly evolving to breeze past their defenses. It’s a mental arms race that most children cannot win because the incentives are all aligned to overcome their resistance and exploit/corrupt them.

Right over the target per usual, gato.

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I gotta say, as a parent it is really difficult nowadays to strike a balance between making sure your kids aren't infected by some of the depraved harmful content, while at the same time making sure they're able to use technology so they are not at a competitive disadvantage.

It's requiring a lot more time then i thought. I hate invading their privacy because it goes against every fiber of my body, but my number one job, as a father, is to protect my children. There's just so much more to consider being a parent than there was when we were growing up.

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Trying to take the cell phone away from my granddaughter is like trying to take away heroin from a junkie, only more violent.

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Right?!

I get Linda Blair-like projectile vomiting for the first 15 minutes.

And then miraculously they become angels again.

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I've watched my nephew become the helpful angel, ready and willing to work his way back to xbox time.

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Yes, the cellphone and TV remote are my ultimate bargaining chips, and when I use them I get almost instant compliance.

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Bribes! I love it. Could work for blackmail too

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How true

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😂

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All the hallmarks of a good father launching arrows in WIN directly into the heart of the future.

Think of it like this: you’re invading their privacy - distasteful as it is - for a benevolent reason and your children will be better for it. They’re invading your children’s privacy for a malevolent reason and would be far less prepared to navigate it without your countermeasures.

It’s a dirty job but it MUST be done and in the end, they will embrace and thank you for rescuing them from predators.

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In spanish we say "it's better one time red than a hundred times yellow" meaning that it's better to say things as they are no matter how angry someone gets than keep trying to meet halfway. So, we are opting not to start these games. Each time they ask for a tablet or a phone they get a rotund no. My kids are still little but they are already the only ones in their class without tablet, smartwatch or phone. When they work and can pay for they smarthphone and the internet provider they will be able to have them. For now, they can entertain themselves playing outside, reading, playing board games... the possibilities are infinite when you are not chained in front of a screen. My husband has set them a linux computer so the older (7 years) can learn to type and coding and even play some games with him but no access to social media. It's gonna be hard but you wouldn't give them heroin, why give them something harmful just because everybody else is doing it?

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Amen! If more bit the bullet and actually parented their children like you do - rather than letting the screens do it for them - the world would be an incalculably better place. Thank you! They will go far and affect others in positive ways like a ripple through society.

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Very well stated. Thank you for your post.

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Yeah. That's the tact we've taken with my girl.

My boy on the other hand we sorta just let boys be boys.

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Gotta pick your battles =)

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And the hill to die on....

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Hmm boys can be harmed by online porn (not just on porn sites but the user-generated stuff which is ubiquitous on Reddit). And X/Twitter is basically a big marketing platform for OnlyFans if you stumble onto the x-rated side of it. So beware.

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Yeah. I think we're safe there. We have a really good app that alerts us to activity like that. No alerts or suspicious activity yet.

But you're right. It's so easy to stumble upon even if you're not deliberately looking for it.

I'm talking about the "banter" between boys. It can be crude and for the most part harmless.

But boy oh boy, I've discovered (not having any sisters myself) girls can be vicious/vindictive in junior high.

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Would you let your child wander alone down a city street? Letting them unaccompanied online is madness. And I recommend homeschooling, especially for the younger ones, because other kids(and sometimes teachers) will show them porn. Let them have a childhood!

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I’m not saying to spoil them, though. Teach them the satisfaction of working with their hands and creating.

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It’s interesting how the risks have shifted in a couple of generations. For those of us growing up in Generation X, our parents had to worry about primarily physical risks (no bike helmets, crazy-dangerous playground equipment, latchkey kids with no supervision getting up to crazy stunts, etc.). Oh, and drugs.

Generation X parents have to worry about psychological risks, mostly stemming from our kids’ interactions with technology designed to enable addictive behaviors and nudge kids into greater insecurities and neurosis. Oh, and the drugs are easier to come by and stronger now.

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The drugs are being pushed by doctors! Ritalin and terrible SSRIs, which are addictive and can catastrophically re-wire the brain. Studies have shown that SSRI’s (anti-anxiety and anti-depressant meds) are not much more effective than placebos (sugar pills) and cause depression, homocidal rage and suicides. And yet the doctors keep prescribing them.

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We worked in computers our entire lives. And thought it would be easy to stay ahead of our kids. HA! We were surpassed by 7th grade. And so was the school admin that insisted on iPads for all.

NOW our grown kids say 1000 percent when they have kids, there will be NO privacy at all until their kids are adults. They know what they did and know they are lucky to have survived.

I recommend that all parents who feel like they’re invading privacy, think again. Your child’s online life depends on YOU.

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I have never been a parent, and have only seen the effect of the age of the internet on kids from the outside. I have seen two different approaches to some degree and think neither has served children well. The cloistered internet, or the free-range internet.

Of course, the tempting solution is digital id. You can't access the full internet without it. And that is such a good solution on the surface. The child gets fingerprinted or gets an implant, and they are safe. They can't hack in or break in save maybe on a legacy device that does not require it. Everyone would require one because without it, no internet.

On the flip side to that idea of always being tracked and logged, there could be a blockchain id, only known to you, and only you are responsible for it. You could carry it around, maybe memorize the passphrase, and that is a full internet key you opt into. All material deemed "age sensitive" would require that key.

I am sure there are many things wrong with this idea as well, and it certainly brings up some "mark of the beast" insinuations that again are not pallettable, but decentralized and private anything is the way to go on any of these solutions.

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I hate that idea....many other ways to prevent kids accessing sites you don't like..but pushing your responsibility onto a digital Chinese social credit system?

There is no such thing as privacy on the net..blockhain included. Just hand the next dictator the keys to your prison.

And there will always be a next dictator

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Basically NO. No digital ID nor implants.

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Poor kids are being consumed and programmed by evil people. Not only are they being changed by what they see, but a permanent record of every stupid and vile thing they watch or post is being kept. Aren’t we older ones blessed that every stupid thing we did and said is not online? Protect your kids.

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You are right, Ryan - there are more dangers in the ether than ever before especially to developing minds but we are not the first generation to look askance at some new 'teenage fad'. Elvis, The Beatles, hippies, Tetris, GameBoy, ad infinitum - parents of each generation had their moral battle to fight. So, take heart, we're all on an evolutionary journey where some things never change.

"It’s the early decades of a new century, and young adults are not particularly happy. Many believe that their parents’ generation is out of touch and stuck in their dated, anachronistic ways. The country and the world are changing fast, after all, and this older generation does not seem to want to keep up with the times. Many 20- and 30-somethings are thinking about striking out on their own, a risky move perhaps but one that will offer independence, freedom, and the opportunity to follow one’s own dreams. Heading west seems especially appealing, as folks in that part of the country seem more open-minded and willing to take chances in the hope of hitting it big.

"I could be talking about the 21st century, but it’s actually the 19th century. Young adults of that time—the first generation of non-native Americans to have been born in the new country—saw things very differently than their colonial era parents. Members of that older generation had likely emigrated to the colonies from England and, while they eventually fought for independence from that country, hadn’t totally rid themselves of their Old World attitudes and behavior. The younger generation was more progressive and adventurous than their Revolutionary War-era parents, and members of “Gen A” ultimately did strike out on their own to forge new paths that would become known as Manifest Destiny."

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/boomers-30/202110/why-the-millennial-vs-baby-boomer-conflict-is-good-thing

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So please explain something to those of us (I can’t be the only one) who are struggling, in our non-tech savvy condition, to keep up. Briefly re-routing to Rednote has opened Pandora’s box?

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Good question. Tik-tok and RedNote are weapons of mass mental destruction aimed directly at the impressionable minds of children and teens. They are designed to burn the world to the ground by going after its foundation: the next generation.

So if you see these “app”s (app = 33 btw) as the nuclear mind bombs they are, just imagine what happens when you suddenly unleash one of these WMDs on a population - like China’s - who is wholly unready for it? The future gets rewritten in a big bad way.

Example: One of the images gato provided: “i think my taste in women has changed”. This was after 2 days of scrolling.

It’s devastating. The human mind is clay to the psychopaths pushing this.

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Releasing American influencers on China seems unethical in a way almost like supplying the ingredients to cheap highly addictive drugs to the Mexican cartels and then releasing said product onto an unsuspecting populace.

Too bad it couldn’t be targeted onto the CCP and leave the innocents in their ignorant bliss.

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This is what I was afraid of. My prediction: China will shut down RedNote. I will make sure all my children read this Stack. They already are banning TikTok with their kids who now have phones, but in the midst of all the other stuff they are dealing with, they are barely keeping up any better than I am.

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Really cute girls who don't want to boss you around are the ultimate force of persuasion.....

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IT'S A TRAP!

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Or, Guns, Germs, and Steel--and Bytes?

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RedNote was kind of a Pollyanna app for travel tips, fashion, makeup, etc. like early Instagram or Pinterest for young Chinese. Very innocent. Until the US TikTok users started moving there when the TikTok ban was threatened. Seemingly overnight, RedNote was inundated with wild, crazy, sexy, etc etc Americans.

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