Re: Family Link
Explanation doesn't work completely for children that young. If the system concerned makes it easy enough, the child will probably go ahead with it, especially as they can't do some things without having an account. Explaining about privacy, legal restraints, etc. doesn't really penetrate their minds, because they don't know how many ways they can be tracked. I remember setting up an account in my childhood thinking that I must be completely safe because I used a different name, an address constructed from a random number, fake street name, and a postal code from a directory site, and a birth date set to make my age 27. That account actually was safe, because it wasn't from a company that did extra tracking, but I would not have had the knowledge to determine safe from unsafe. Discipline might not work either; the parents have to know exactly what the child is doing at all times. If the child doesn't understand the systems well enough to know what is allowed and what isn't, they could end up thinking that all activity online is forbidden. In general, I'd try to ensure that the child already has accounts for things they will want to use, such as email, which can be restricted or audited by the parents until the child has a clearer concept of what can happen online. Explanations might help, but I don't think they will be sufficient on their own.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
