Government Knows How to Raise Your Kids

So I had another politically based rant but that is going to have to take a back seat because I came across something that really irritated me.


I recently upgraded my phone and since they weren't going to offer me enough of a trade-in to justify giving it up because my kids would love to have it as a tablet.  That has worked out fine but they are kids of a new era where they begin using computers in kindergarten, or in the case of my youngest, before school altogether.  And he wants to use the calendar and a few other apps that require a Gmail account.  So you may be thinking no problem, right?
 Well that is where you are wrong.  The government of the United States has determined that no child under the age of 13 can make decisions which has lead Google, and most other free email services, to prevent the use of their services by anyone under the age of 13.  In fact there are a lot of people whose children had accounts that were several years old turned off because Google somehow found out they were under 13.  It isn't like they snooped around to find out, they child signed up for a different Google service where the age was required.  This sign up caused a trigger within the Google ecosystem that caused it.


The name of the law is Child Online Privacy Protection Act.  The purpose of the law is to protect the children whose parents can't be bothered to watch what their children are doing.  I touched on this in a previous post (you can see it on Google+ post from January 29th at this link Get Off My Lawn on G+).  Parents these days tend to use things as a baby sitter rather than spending time with their children.  It really irks me that I am going to have to either spend money to get them an email address or twist the truth a little as some have done.  I try to teach them to do the right thing but this is ridiculous!


I understand that we need to protect our children but the law shouldn't put restrictions on the use of something like technology.  I can purchase a phone for my children but based on this law they couldn't use it to it's fullest potential.  At what point is the government going to realize that laws like this are putting our children farther and farther behind the rest of the world?  How is preventing a child from using email - or other online services - going to prevent a sexual predator from taking advantage of a child?  Do they not realize that sort of thing happened for thousands of years prior to the invention of the internet?  And I'm sure it will continue to occur even with these laws in place.  The way to solve this issue isn't to stifle the use of services, it is to devote time to finding ways to better fund operations to catch the predators and more importantly expect the parents to be parents.  And by that I mean be involved with your children!


In all honesty, I can't blame Google and the others for their stance because they need to protect themselves from government action.  But I can blame the government for their interference with my children's ability to keep up with the rest of the world and forcing me to consider twisting the rules a little so that they can experience technology in it's fullest glory.