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Children Concerned By Parents' Web Habits
praps writes "Children are becoming increasingly worried about their parents' Internet habits, according to a report just released in Sweden. Unsurprisingly, dads surfing for pornography is the most common problem, but chatroom addiction also featured in the report — as is a mother who has become obsessed with World of Warcraft. 'This summer she has been sitting up all day and all night and she forgets what's important to me,' wrote the woman's 13-year-old daughter. 'And when she's not at the computer she's like a lost soul. She just looks straight ahead and says nothing.'" There are also a lot of scammers out there who like nothing better than to find retirees who they can sucker into get-rich-quick schemes involving real-estate, stock options, and convincing the neighbors to be part of a "downstream" for MLM marketing ploys.
I just need to run another 10,000 google queries for Brazilian Fart Porn and I'll ding level 70..
The WoW thing could be bad... depends on whether she's chatting/enjoying herself, or whether she's actually addicted. The Dad surfing for porn thing is normal though.
So I installed linux on it. The last support call I got was because my dad couldn't figure out which port the speakers plugged in to (and apparently he's becoming color blind). I think they're just making stuff up now to guilt me into visiting. They're happy with it and my mom is even an advocate for it at her school.
Parents concerned by children's.... oh nevermind.
Now explain to me how the kids know about dads porn addiction. Also, just wait until they reach puberty and they will understand.
Chat room addiction is ok, otherwise dad would go to the next bar and get shit faced.
Obsession with world of warcraft sounds real dangerous to me though. They should rather get out and go to some sort of medieval festival. I took part in something like that (heavily involving archery) and met a whole bunch of programmers (just two but hey the idea counts).
Now I'll go and read the article. So long.
Je me souviens.
Do you have a child?
...it was rather disturbing accidentally coming across the spanking porn fiction my dad had apparently been writing on his computer. He's retired. After seeing that, I had a feeling that I already knew what I would find under the "Depression" category of bookmarks on his web browser. Sure enough, a bunch of spanking story sites. I really didn't need to know about his particular fetish.
Especially if mom lives there now.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
"dads surfing for pornography is the most common problem"
Why is that a problem? so dad likes some porn, big deal.
Hmmm, yes I've seen this with WoW. I highly suggest that 13 year old change the router so it 'drops out' during certain times of the day..also she needs to get her mother in intervention.
Obviously, my porn comment is for casual viewing, if it impacts going to work, taking care of the kids etc, it's a problem too. The fact that it's porn or WoW doesn't matter.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
...that I, for one, welcome our concerned children over... I'll be off the computer in a minute sweaty, go watch TV.
I don't have a parent with an "internet problem", but my DM does. He is always looking to stop the game so he can play WOW and get that slack jawed look.
He told me he has 7 70's.
Is this a problem?
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
Whatever causes the "looking straight ahead and not saying anything" is what lends easy addiction to games. It's not the games that cause the zombie behavior.
I wonder how many of these problems are kids whining for attention the way they might whine for ice cream, and how many of these issues are genuine problems. In many cases, if there is a genuine problem, I suspect it'd manifest in other ways if the Internet didn't exist. For those seeking escapism, it might be that the parent goes to the dog track or casino instead of the endless web surfing.
As for kids coming across daddy's little porn stash, I worry for the parents more than the children. If the parent isn't being inappropriate with the child (Yes showing them porn isn't appropriate but I'm talking about interfeering with them) it's the parent that could end up in jail in our paranoid society. The truth is that if kids are to be equipped to deal with the modern world, they should learn about sex early so that they can avoid predators and dangerous misinformation. They just should not engage in sexual activity early. People have become so scared that their children might engage in sex early that they're willing to go to extreme measures and label ordinary parents as sexual predators. Honestly how many slashdotters would have had fathers who had a stash of playboy magazines and who'd secretly sneaked a peak at them when they were young. This is the internet equivalent.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
My parents problem is they are trying to get $10,000 loan from some dude named Frank Petti in Nigeria. They don't believe that it's a scam despite me showing them the evidence and they are already out $500+. But he even sent "credentials" which were the worst photoshop job I've ever seen. No kidding, I did better the first time I used it.
...isn't it supposed to be the other way around? irony.
you insensitive clod. At least I got chicken.
I guess that's... better than nothing, right?
Property is theft.
WoW is not an addiction. I can quit anytime I like! :-)
Is this a problem?
Yes.There are nine character classes available.
Clearly he is slacking.
parents behaving this was is bad enough, but this statement here says alot about the kids today
"This summer she has been sitting up all day and all night and she forgets what's important to me"
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
All that is happening is people are discovering the internet and exploring it at different periods of their lives. Most people, when they first get connected, end up in a chat room and/or some IM program within the first few days of using it. Just like when many of us discovered it, we were amazed and used the same sort of things these people are using in their early internet life. Games, porn, chat rooms and IMing are often the extent that people use the internet for on a regular basis. They are comfortable with the technology and seem content with what they have found, at least for a bit.
:)
As the years go by and you expand your personal scope of/for the internet, you ditch all the things you did when you first got on and really get down to business finally. Call it internet puberty if you wish... these people are just exploring things just like we all did at one point. Honestly, I think it is funny to see friends of mine who just finally get online and start talking about chat rooms or some flash game they found. It takes me back to the days when all the internet was there for was to entertain me. Now I am connected to the/a network nearly all the time, I make my living from it and if it went down for more than 6 hours, I might get the shakes.
Invexi - a Phoenix, AZ based web design and web development company.
This time around, the slogan is "Think of the parents!" ?
The grass is always greener on the other side of the light cone.
Maybe in your sad life porn teaches the wrong things. In my world it's a wealth of ideas and suggestions on what to try next ... so far it's all turned out to be very bloody fun!
Won't somebody please think of the parents?
Fnord.
This video clip explains it well: Judge Judy - World of What? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stHF-8GPz0c&feature=related And it's pretty sad how many people ignore real life responsibilities over a game and it's not uncommon. I've played WoW for about a month and quit simply because it's something you can't play for weeks without lagging behind your friends in-game. By the time you get back in-game your low level character can no longer be part of higher level characters' quests so it's a constant battle to keep up. To me it's not worth it.
the problem is that these "parents" are apparently only parents in name. these people need to grow up and learn how to be the adults in these families
Have make sure my 9 year old son making dinner for the wife and I. Back in a minute.
Are your children worried about your slashdot trolling?
People can, and do, quit MMOs. I quit WoW not long ago. No big reason, no epic struggle, I was just kinda bored of it. I hadn't been playing enough to justify my subscription so I stop the recurring charge. I'll probably go back and play it some time later, or maybe another MMO, I'm just not in the mood for them right now. I didn't "win" I didn't have everything in the game, not even close. I just really don't feel like playing it at this point in time.
So there isn't any magical digital crack in these games that forces you to play. Some people just have the sort of personalities or mental problems or life problems or whatever that they get far too heavily in to it and won't give it up and thus their life suffers. It isn't a flaw with the game, it is a flaw with the individual.
Lots of people will comment that this is not addiction in any way. What those misguided people are so desperate to do is to claim that their particular hobbies are somehow better than others and can't be addictive. Games, etc. are just as addictive when pursued to the exclusion of necessary activities like parent-child interaction. This can't be denied. Why not move the discussion on to the actual important topics of for instance how to reduce the allowance for addictiveness in games, etc. or how to create tools for people to use to gauge when they are slipping into these things? Harder with things outside of controlled environments, but this is all with damn computers so there is a vast opening for tools to combat it here.
Saying MLM marketing is a bit redundant, don't you think?
Mine are increasingly worried that I'm turning into a Slashbot. I'm not sure why.
Well, anyway, I, for one, welcome our new Slashdot-trolling parental overlords!
In Soviet Russia, children worry about YOU!!!
My blog
Now that we have resolved that issue, maybe we won't have to hear people whine about their prudish sexual hangups... Yeah... I didn't think so either.
<PSA>
The Internet is a great tool. But grownups are often too old to understand its dangers. Children, educate your parents about the Internet. Discuss appropriate and inappropriate online behavior. Set reasonable limits on their Internet time. Most importantly, talk to your parents about the Internet. Communication is the most important thing. You have the power to protect your parents from the dangers of the Internet.
</PSA>
...sites, man would we have lots of 'splaining to do. "Concerned" would probably not cover it.
Of course, searching for other women or couples that the husband and I can tag team probably doesn't technically fall into the category of "porn" - but it could easily still fall into the "teaches the wrong things about sex."
*tripple checking that I'm posting anonymously*
Oh come on. Like there aren't mothers surfing for pr0n too. Puh-leeze...
*** *** You're just jealous 'cause the voices talk to me... ***
Smash Mom's monitor with a hammer.
expandfairuse.org
..will go crying to the government to Do Something, to make up for their lack of parent-raising skills.
Kids, if you don't think you can handle the responsibility, then don't become a child!
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
a newspaper thinks the internet is bad
this has nothing to do with the fact that the internet destroys newspapers print run and therefore their ad sales volume
move along, nothing to see here...
The MAFIAA is a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes
- Parker, Peter II
...it doubles the WoW bill. If that's still cheaper than prozac or lorazapam, then I guess it's ok. In either case, though, the "correct" treatment is to tackle the underlying issue, not let it stagnate. Stagnant problems are no different from stagnant pools - they will only improve as far as bloodsucking vermin are concerned.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Am I the only one who thought was going to link to an onion article??
Not a problem man, you're just behind the times, see, paper roleplaying is a dead medium, time for you to get a wow account, tell your DM I'm sure he'll love to help you out with some bags and dungeon runs, and if you really are into the RP instead of just killing monsters for their stuff (which is all D&D is really good at anyway), you can probably RP with him too, get your whole DnD group going, in game groups with IRL connections work out better anyway than grouping with the great unwashed masses of the internet.
Just to put that in perspective, it's about 900 hours in 650 days - about 1:25 a day, every day, seven days a week. Truthfully, that was about my playschedule, too - of those 650 days, I was logged in at least 600 of them... maybe more. My typical morning included 30-60 minutes of playing before work, as that was the only time I could be certain of getting on. Evenings and weekends were spotty with kid duty and "wife agro".
My son played, too, though he never got as far into it as I did. The nice thing was that it gave us something to talk about and do together. The bad thing was that it was almost all we ever talked about or did together.
Ultimately, I quit for several reasons. First and foremost, the game wasn't really fun anymore. It felt like work just to keep up with it. Second, a lot of the people in the game weren't fun to play with. That's part of #1, but it's also a separate item. There's jerks in the world, and maybe more on teh interwebz than elsewhere, but it seemed WoW had a disproportionate share. Third, the time was just too much. You couldn't sit down for a couple of hours and play the game and have fun, or at least I couldn't. So, after losing two jobs during those two years (related or not? you decide), I finally quit.
These last couple of months have been like coming out of a fog. Am I suddenly using an "extra" ten hours a week productively? Not necessarily. Am I no longer wasting time on the computer? Well, there's plenty of ways to waste time besides WoW. However, I can clearly say I'm better for dropping it - a better husband, a better father, a better employee, and better for myself, too.
Is WoW an addiction? Maybe. Did WoW cause my problems? I don't think so - I always saw my WoW as symptomatic of other issues in my life, not causal - but one could certainly draw some strong correlations.
As a parent, though, I'm glad to be out of that "world". I did have some fun, and there are things I miss, but overall the real world beats WoW hands-down.
I'm concerned about the LACK of freely available high-quality pornography. The Internet is awash with low-res images, low-res 3-second video clips and pictures of women on dating sites that are much better looking than the real women turn out to be.
When will the government step in a rid us of these problems? If the "good stuff" were freely and easily available over free high-speed Internet like we deserve, dads would not have to spend a lot of time waiting for the stuff to download or deplete the family's savings paying for rip-off pay-4-pr0n sites. And, they could meet some REAL hot moms and dump the bad moms that won't talk to their kids.
BTW, I suspect the rest of the article is bogus. What 13-year old WANTS to talk to their parents and wouldn't appreciate some quality alone time to hang with their friends?
More April Fool's news before 1/4/2008 I'm afraid. Next thing, it will be Talk Like a Pirate Day tomorrow . . .
And here I thought comics like this one would be out of reality... (altho in the comic it's the kid who's spending time online)
I don't get it. Am I supposed to think of the parents, or is this just another ploy to get me to think of the children (who are thinking about their parents)?
If they learned sex from porn, no one would ever get pregnant because they would all be doing money shots. The fact that the species continues to multiply is proof that only heterosexual white males learn about sex from porn.
Before women were given the opportunity to do something other than spit out kids and sit at home they had absolutely boundless options to keep themselves from going crazy. Sure some of them were completely convinced of the "love my family, I'm a happy homemaker" idea, but most would develop unhealthy obsessions with (I'll start with the benign and work down) cleaning, reading, TV, eating, drinking, and whatever was the most legal version of morphine at the time. Did I mention sex/adultery? Now if your mom goes to work and comes home to play wow instead of spend time with you, just go ahead and assume you're an unloved wretch of a child. Also, tell the bitch to get you an account and a computer then pwn her ass in the Arenas.
My mum has five 70s, and my Dad has a little over twenty 60s :/
I play less WoW than my mum...
Homonyms are fun!
You're driving your car, but they're riding their bikes there.
My little dejected one it is time to pick up that mouse, level a 70 and do what most children dream of doing: Going into Azeroth and grieving your mom. That's right, corpse camp her until she has to log onto her pathetic little alt, leveling is the greatest amount of suffering in the game. Hell I'm sure you have friends that play wow get them to help. This is perhaps the one time in your life you'll be a child that can discipline your mother. Fucking pwn her ass.
There are plenty of studies that show an exposure to 'hard core' pornography at a young age has ill effects latter in life.
heh, pownography.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Nope. That's one of the advantages of "empty nest syndrome" ;-)
I worked at a casino in Tasmania where i live, and they have a monopoly on 'gaming' machines in the state. Gaming is their word for poker machines which are the ultimate form of money making addiction machines. They have all the best psychologists working on these machines so they tweak peoples rewards centers just right and the money of the poorest portion of our community is focused into the pockets of one very wealthy family.
So if there is someone playing games too much, who cares at least they aren't stealing money to fund it like all those gambling addicts and to some extent hard drug addicts.
like phosphorescent desert buttons singing one familiar song
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kid? If you're going to raise kids, they should be the top priority. Other things are merely means to that end.
Having said that, there's nothing wrong with playing WoW or other games. Get your kids involved. Teach them how to team play, develop strategies, remember and calculate WoW's mathematical side, etc.
It works all over the world and helps to maintain civil and political order. East Germany, Cambodia, China, Soviet Russia all employed vast schemes for children to spy on their parents and report on them ensuring they would be sent to the appropriate 're education' facility.
What, is this the new alcoholism? As I have always understood it, once something starts interfering with your outside life, it constitutes an addiction. Maybe there should be an AA for these people so they stop dying in coffee shops and that sort of thing. Then again, once you got them all together, they'd just talk about WoW. And a mediator would probably end up stabbed with a sword.
I was worried about my parents' surfing habits, too.
Then I installed Deep Freeze on their machine. (I "re-aquisitioned" an installer from where I work in a rare, hypocritical moment of software piracy.)
Now, they could even format a partition from within Windows, and the machine will reboot as if nothing ever happened. It's "Groundhog's Day" for your PC.
Now, I have nothing to worry about! No maintenance problems for me!
DATABASE WOW WOW
When I read this a situation that I ran into in January came to mind.
A couple of our regular customers come in to upgrade both of their machines (each parent had one - neither of the two low-end by any means). They priced out about 1500 dollars worth of parts and openly debated about maxing their (only) credit card out on the parts..
Normally, this wouldn't bother me - not any of my business how they pay, so long as they do.
Then, however, after deciding to go ahead and buy the parts - they start going on about how the husband was laid off in December and still hadn't found work - AND THAT THEY HADNT BEEN ABLE TO AFFORD ANYTHING FOR THEIR KIDS FOR CHRISTMAS less than two weeks before.
They're reason: If they dont keep up with WoW they may get kicked out of their Guild!
It may be none of my business, but I'm a parent myself and this just sickens me. I finally ended up having sudden 'stock shortages' and found a way to talk them out of the parts, but still...
I think that was a Spacemen3 song. Cheers.
Thats it! I'll never try WoW, I was thinking in giving it a try but when a game tries so desperately to get on to your life you sure know It can be really addictive. Is this just by the monthly fee? Theres is no other way of playing? Set your own server? On a PIII machine like good old Quake2? Guess I'll never quit on Q2. --
:) Make them part of it and teach them that it's just a game and that you like to play too, as she. Kids need to understand that their parents need time for themselves otherwise you're just raising basement dwellers.
More on topic, I agree that kids get concerned by parents staring at a monitor, even my daughter gets mad at me when I start to play or I'm working, She tries to get my attention and she's just 1yo, Sure they know or they can associate the fact that you're "face to face" = giving attention to something that is not even a tall-speaking-hugging-something-daddy, on the most basic sense as for a 1yo girl.
If you have kids, and you can't just quit on gaming... at least bring them to the clan
Hey dad, will you get off that computer for dinner now? We're eating. You're not listening, but we're sure you'll read this.
Your loving kids.
Well, I asked a blizzard rep exactly this question - and he replied "no, no problem at all!"
And if you can't trust the *makers* of the game, who can you trust?
Well, at least the swedish newspapers have exaggerated this tremendously in nothing else that can be called misleading. New sources (swedish) point out how parents "IT usage" is the least concern for children as measured in the survey. It only accounts for 5.5% and includes not only pornography surfing but also stuff like "parent restricts computer usage for child". The childrens largest concern in the survey is "love and fellowship" which accounts for 47%.
In Soviet Russia, children worry about YOU!!!
RTFA, its SwedenIf the parents are neglecting their children, for example not buying food or clothes and paying bills then you have a problem. Small children need attention from parents to learn and grow. Teens however, need to learn some autonomy so they wont become needy little shits.
I cant see a teenage boy complaining about this. Free porn and someone to play WoW with. I fail to see the problem. If the kid doesnt play WoW then he still has free porn. Teenage girls these days are obsessive compulsive materialistic little brats that think the world revolves around them.
Sorry, non-native speaker here, but what is a DM? answer.com suggests: Dungeon Master, Doctor of Medicine, Dangermouse, Depeche Mode, Dennis Miller, and several others. Which one is it?
molmod.com - computing tips from a molecular modeling
Do you know where your parents are?
Perhaps the age old public safety announcement has stuck to a generation of people who are now completely disconnected from the world in one way or another come 10pm.
In this context, DM stands for Dungeon Master. This is the master and story teller in a role playing game such as "Dungeons & Dragons".
Most men are not thought unwise until they speak.
My father is a Magician! He lays on his belly with his knees in the air!
or not. There are methods and rhythms of reward that may be employed to generate maximum addiction potential...maybe it doesn't happen for you. fine. some people are more prone to addiction than other, and for you to judge that that isn't the case because YOU don't experience it is self-centered and delusionally narcissistic. Some people need a little extra help, or some other method than just 'deciding to quit,' in order to get past these addictions.
I think Gambling addiction is by far a closer match to what is going on with WoW. You kill a mob. You might get something awesome. More often then not though, you've "lost" your time for no good reason. You've risked your character's life slightly (granted the penalties are very small) so there is an element of risk.
Sounds a lot like the risk->reward scenario of gambling.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Ah, but what is worse then? Wasting time playing Role Playing Games or playing WoW? :p IMHO, either way, he has a problem ;)
molmod.com - computing tips from a molecular modeling
Well, I'd say that if his WoW addiction interferes with his DM duties, he's doubly in trouble!
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
I am sick to death of hearing people talk about how games/WoW/the Internet are "addicting" and ruin relationships. Most of the criticism I've heard seems to come from fat, stupid, ignorant Americans who get all of their information and knowledge of technology from the sensationalist garbage that gets served up as news in this country. It's the same reason games always get blamed for school shootings - because the media know nothing about games or computers but still like to make up stories they can pass off as the cause of someone's actions so it looks like they know what they're talking about. Games and the Internet aren't any more addicting that anything else. If a mother is neglecting her kid because she's playing WoW, then it's because she's a lousy parent; if she didn't play WoW she'd have some other vice causing the same problem.
Anti-depressants help a lot.
Yes, you said the magic word there, fun.
This is the key question for the whole thing. Are you having fun while you play the game? As objectively as you can be, is this fun that you're having really worth the sacrifices your making in your "real life" to have this fun?
Although I retreated into WoW heavily at one point when my life basically collapsed, when I resumed a more normal (but still very heavy) usage pattern, I had a good balance for a long time, and it was a very healthy thing for me. The raiding was very time intensive, but it really wasn't all that different in terms of time and commitment than being on a sports team, although of course it was missing the whole exercise bit....
Eventually, though, it just stopped being fun. I played for months just not enjoying it, and I know many people who have done this or are even still doing the exact same thing.
If it's not fun, stop! Perhaps the strangest thing about WoW is how people just get on the reward-for-difficult-achievent item hamsterwheel, and somehow fail to realize that they're not having fun anymore.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
Well, that is rather sad. Parents shouldn't be neglecting their families, let alone children.
On the other hand, I've got the opposite problem: trying to teach my mother how to use the computer, and trying to teach my dad how to use the computer SAFELY (as in, quit freakin clicking the damn ads and popups!).
WoW was just entertainment to me, like reading books, watching movies, playing (other) video games, etc. I didn't play it to "escape" anything, just to amuse myself. I, like many Americans, have the luxury of having all my more basic needs (per Maslow's hierarchy) met fairly easily and thus have a good deal of time to spend on entertaining myself. For me, it is generally video games, though books as well. TV and movies occasionally, but I don't tend to find them good entertainment for the dollars or for the time.
Now if you want to define anything that's not work as "escape" ok fine, but you'll forgive me if I'm glad I don't like a life like that. I want to enjoy life as much as I can, and entertainment is rather enjoyable.
I won't pretend these people don't have problems going in, but isn't it naive to suppose that WoW isn't, at the very least, an enabler for this sort of behavior?
Guns don't kill people, people kill people, right? And I suppose the same is true with crack. "Hold on people, let's not start blaming crack here! It's not crack's fault that Johnny can't say no!"
Maybe they mean the same thing, but I would regard looking at pornography as common, not normal. I think it breeds dissatisfaction with one's partner.
1.) I, for one, welcome our new Slashdot-trolling parental overlords!
2.) In Soviet Russia, children worry about YOU!!!
3.) ????????????
4.) Profit!
Play Recursive D&D then. Get yourself a WoW account and have your DM run the campaign from a tavern in Azeroth.