If they want to make it child friendly ...
... they'll be filtering out wikipedia then.
Google is developing children-specific versions of its products aimed at the under-12s, smashing one of the tech industry's taboos. Pavni Diwanji, Google VP of engineering, says of the playground invasion that the goal is to "change our products to be fun and safe for children", or so she told USA Today. The paper drily notes …
"the (arts graduate) educationalists and the mass media think of [computers] more like a portal to a new dimension – one where Unicorns frolic"
Well, they're not wrong.
(The reader is cordially invited to google image search "clop", several unicorns frolicking will probably be seen.)
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Forget that. Copyright's not important here! Thomas is everything-ist.
There was an article in the Guardian about it a few months ago, apparently seriously intentioned. Although it's hard to tell when they're trolling their readers for clickbait - or if this was just a sophisticated parody that I was too stupid to spot.
Well obviously it's sizist. Fat Controller etc. And paternalistic, and far too upper class for the Gruan. But then the author started descending into madness. It's mysoginist, because the carriages are female, and apparently most of the engines are male. Well that might be more a fair point, but it's also racist. The diesel engines are mostly black you see, and they're -the baddies. Geddit?
It was amusing anyway. Judge for yourself
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Everyone involved in IT entertainment should read Silicon Snake Oil, too. But frankly a great many people "involved in education" have no desire to foist computers on children. As usual, Andrew is slinging mud at various wild generalizations that haunt his imagination.
Install Xposed and the YouTube AdAway plug-in to remove adverts.
As for what YouTube app recommends, that's down to your previous search history and watch history... You'll probably want to clear and pause both, then.
One day, while showing my toddlers Thomas The Tank Engine on YouTube, I was greeted with a pre-roll advertisement for the Church of Scientology. And one of the suggested clips was a dead Bin Laden.
That says it all, really. While the www can be beneficial to young children as a small part of their developing lives that only makes sense under supervision. What google are after seems to go way beyond that.
For Google, I think the icon is very appropriate.
Well, yeah, from what I can understand, that is precisely what Google would like to fix…
Once you control the video web site, the search engine, the browser, possibly the OS and the hardware itself, your position for creating a mostly-safe internet for kids is basically as good as it can get.
Now, the question is how much non-Google web sites will be included in this walled garden.
Now, the question is how much non-Google web sites will be included in this walled garden.
Why, none of course.
Google seems to only have one driver : Growth. Why (whether for the benefit of humans or just for money/influence) seems to be immaterial. Like a Blob consuming everything in its path, growing larger and more unstopable as it goes.
So now the interthingy is going to be full of those merciless Christmas type ads that are targeted directly into the part of a childs brain that produces the impossible to ignore mmmuuuummmyyyy/ddddaaadddyyy I WANT THAT!! and it's going to be all year round and worse at Christmas and Easter.
It's an argument for getting a child minder at weekends and taking up golf.
Or turn off the bloody computer and interact on a personal level with the kids!
One factor is that US Federal Law gives children under the age of 13 a special status on the Internet. They cannot be given an account by an internet service without explicit parental permission.
This actually makes sense, and I think it goes some way towards explaining why Google might be doing this. It's not so much the content as making sure they can do the extra permission checks for the account. Child-safe game apps may still need that extra permission if they need a live internet connection to run.