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Using AI to Monitor Kids Online
eldavojohn writes "An Australian startup believes that the best way to protect your children online is through an artificially intelligent software program. The inventors of this idea are banking on children's attachment to pets. The creature's 'cuteness' and helpfulness will ingratiate the software with the child, so that he or she will respect it and listen to it, or even find it as a likable companion. Agent-based internet applications are nothing new but for concerned parents, this might be an admirable solution to what is perceived by many to be a growing problem. From one of the inventors: 'Of course, we're also planning to release a version of the Moji IM for teenagers and adults, but we're focusing on children at the moment.'"
AI: Todd ... ... it *looks* like a smutty website. ... just checking. Purrrr.....
Kid: Yes, ComputerKat?
AI: Are you surfing a smutty web site? Purr.....
Kid: Nooooooooooo... I'm just going to a site about the *pig* named Babe.
AI: Hm
Kid: Come on, ComputerKat, give me a little credit. If I were going to a smutty website, I wouldn't go to one that *looked* like a smutty website. I'd go to one that I could pass off as being related to a kiddie movie!
AI: Oh, okay
Kid: *stupid AI...*
(courtesy South Park ladder-to-heaven episode)
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
Not very, but it easily surpasses the kind of parent that needs one.
Home fucking is killing prostitution.
You are awash in a sea of fiercely stated opinions. Obvious exits are: 'File->Quit', 'Reply', and 'Page Down'.
Just remember: There's no technological conundrum so complex that we can't find the answer in a Star Trek episode.
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
"I'm sorry, Dave... I'm afraid I can't do that..."
This is my signature. There are many like it but this one is mine.
Ha, and here I was thinking that the best way to protect your children online was having an honest and open relationship and giving them decent social/online education: What a fool I am.
Endless possibilities....
Religious
Moji: "No Timmy don't look at porn! Porn is bad!"
Timmy: "Gee thanks Moji, what should I do instead?"
Moji: "You should embrace Jesus Christ as your personal lord and saviour!"
Timmy: "Aw Moji, I wanna play!"
Moji: "You to risk eternal damnation in the firey pit! Pray for forgiveness!"
Spam
Moji: "No Timmy don't look at porn! Porn is bad!"
Timmy: "Gee thanks Moji, what should I do instead?"
Moji: "I think you should IM my friend bob_the_businessman, and tell him about my 5 million dollars languishing in a Nigerian bank account"
Timmy: "Gosh Moji, you have a lot of friends...That's the 423,892,120th today!"
Sociopathic
Moji: "No Timmy don't look at porn! Porn is bad!"
Timmy: "Gee thanks Moji, what should I do instead?"
Moji: "You should entice girls over to your house by pretending to be rich, and then kill them, and eat their livers with fava beans and a nice chianti."
Timmy: "That doesn't sound like a nice thing to do, Moji."
Moji: "I'm your only friend Timmy, now do as I say! Remember to save the kidneys for later."
How about, and this is radical, just paying more atention as a goddamn parent. Jesus. What is wrong with people?
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
I'm all for keeping kids safe and sound on "teh internetz" but I think a better solution would be more education...however, education that is not made in a stupid way.
Teach kids what is safe (your name, your interests) and not safe (you address, phone number, email) to tell "strangers" online...don't teach our kids to FEAR the internet (much like they do with sex-ed in school) teach them to utilize it safely.
I think this is a good step in the right direction, but I think the efforts could be more useful through other ways. Still, good for them for at least trying to combat the problem.
Education for parents to not give their young teens unfettered and unmonitored access might help. You don't have to stand over their shoulder or anything, but put the computer in a place like the family room or the kitchen...just having you in the same ROOM will at least HELP to deter them from doing things they shouldn't
Living With a Nerd
The intent seems more prevention than prosecution.
Developers: We can use your help.
What it's really about...
FTA:
Fong noted that Mor(f)'s technology may also impact the way advertising is done online.
Since Moji pets are able to understand user preferences, it could be programmed to suggest products to the user in a more personal manner.
This gives a whole new meaning to the term 'exploit'. What happens when your eNanny gets compromised, and starts encouraging your kid to do drugs and whore themselves out? Who's going to monitor the monitoring software?
"I like systems, their application excepted", George Sand (French)
You'll get two....one that looks like an Angel and one that looks like a Devil. They'll sit on each shoulder and argue with each other. Eventually, you figure out that doing what the Devil says is more fun but doing what the Angel says keeps you out of trouble. That's when the Fox shows up behind you and shows you how to make people think you are acting like the Angle when in fact, you are acting like the Devil.
Layne
Like Ron Jeremy?
Have gnu, will travel.
torturous, defective, and ridiculous
well, you got 2 outta 3 right. I was NOT defective. It was VERY good at reporting your browsing habbits so that they could be sold.
Do Or Do Not, There Is No Spoon, There Is Only Zuul. Everything in the above post is probably opinion.
That's a little misleading...Those statistics include people who are arrested for various types of exhibitionism, public indecency, possession of child porn, etc, and not just people who actually go out and actively solicit children for sex.
It's been true in the past, and it's true right now, and it, in all likelihood, will continue to be true...It is far far far more likely for a child to be molested/sexually assaulted by a family member than by a random stranger off the internet...90.2% of sex crimes against minors (bjs) (17 and younger) were by acquaintances and family members, and that percentage only gets higher as they get younger.
As usual though, no one wants to look at that issue...They would much much rather focus on the improbable event of an assault by a stranger, than the far more likely event of an assault by a family member or a family friend.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
If this doesn't show the cold dark heart of a corporation that peddles to children, then I don't know what does.
I totally disagree. I think that parents with children would flock to an IM service that worked against issues like these. The one thing that Windows XP Home got right is the user account control. Parents can easily set up kids accounts that cannot install software. If the parent knows that one IM service is better controling content and watching out for prowlers online, they would install that system. Parents tend to talk with other parents too and it would spread like wildfire. Schools, local police and other interested parties could also do great work to spread the word. If a parent is having some sort of sexual encounter online and wants to use something else to feel like it's more discreet then fine, but I seriously think that the first IM service to offer something like this would flourish.
Dissenter
"There is no knowledge that is not power."