Apple Awarded Anti-Sexting Patent

eldavojohn writes "If your parenting skills aren't up to snuff, Apple's got a patent on the device that will allow you to control what your child sends and receives. Entitled 'Text-based communication control for personal communication device,' this patent uses examples like increasing the number of Spanish words your child receives so that they can better learn Spanish. You could even use it to control your child's grammar and spelling in outgoing text messages. But news sources seem to be focusing on the censorship issue that Apple has been criticized for before: 'The control is in line with earlier efforts adopted by Apple like Playboy which entered into a deal with Apple to censor its content to secure a place in App Store.' Perhaps the wives and agents of popular athletes would be more interested in this technology? Apple is certainly sending a message opposite to the one Microsoft advertises."

Comments

Oh come on...

[geminidomino]

A Favre jab on slashdot? Seriously?

I knew this place was going down the crapper, but I didn't think it had hit the "E! TV" level of low yet...

Parenting skills?

[iamwhoiamtoday]

News flash, dearest parents. Controlling everything that your child does is not good parenting. Yes, the kids will mess up every now and then. So do we all. If you impose a lot of rules, monitor every little thing that your child does, then all they will do is find a way around whatever blocks / rules you have in place. They have a LOT of energy, and endless free time.

tl:dr - Being a good parent does not mean monitoring every little action.

Re:Parenting skills?

[Darkness404]

Exactly. Heck, strict parenting has your kids go wild later in life. The people who control their kids lives in middle and high school either have a massive rebellion in high school, or if they put them in the college that the kid doesn't want to go to, they will rebel later in life.

If you don't let your kids do little things (watch R rated movies, hang out with friends, read what they want to, etc.) and then whenever they do realize that those things aren't really harmful, they will question your judgment on things that are harmful, such as drinking and driving.

When parents cry wolf at every little silly harmless "moral panic" they lose credibility with their kids.

Re:Parenting skills?

[BJ_Covert_Action]

If you impose a lot of rules, monitor every little thing that your child does, then all they will do is find a way around whatever blocks / rules you have in place...

The unintended consequence of this, and, dare I say, hidden advantage of it, is that such measures create generations of kids that are good at hacking their way out of oppressive measures whom have little respect for authority. In a world where governments seem to see their role, increasingly, as using any and all means (including technology) at their disposal to trample on human rights, this combination of skills and attitude will be a valuable weapon in the hands of the citizenry.

Re:Parenting skills?

[Abstrackt]

Good points. Being a good parent means not just teaching your kids how to act properly when they are unsupervised but also instilling the desire to do so.

The biggest problem I've seen with parents putting their kids' lives on rails is that when the kid is ever exposed to a new problem they have a hell of a time reasoning out the solution based on previous experience because they've never been allowed to fail.

Re:Parenting skills?

[cptdondo]

Absolutely. We have some friends who micro-managed their daughter. Now she's 13, has already been thrown out of 2 schools, and on and on. Kids need room to be kids.

Teach your kids to do the right thing. To do that you have to actually live that way too - it does no good to preach the evils of drunk driving, then have 4 beers with dinner and drive home.

Set the example, trust your kids to do the right thing, and talk to them.

Bringing your kids up right is all about respect. I encourage my kids to keep their passwords private, I don't snoop on them, and I encourage them to talk to me.

That's much harder and much more effective than some stupid filter.

Re:Parenting skills?

[avandesande]

Buying a child an expensive unnecessary useless gadget to improve their peer status is bad parenting.

Re:Parenting skills?

[pnuema]

A piece of advice, from an older parent to a new parent: you are not raising a child. You are raising an adult. You should spend your daughter's entire life as if you will drop dead when she turns 18. When you look at things from this perspective, things completely change. You are not protecting your child from the world; you are preparing them for it. They can handle a lot more than you think they can - including falling off a couch.

Re:Parenting skills?

[Putr]

I agree.

On one hand let's take my parents: They never told me i cant do anything, just warned me of the concicuances, like alcohol, when i was 16 my parents sat me down and told me how to drink, and whant no to mix and how to party. THey ASKED me not do do drugs and explaind why. My mom smokes and she said "You know what cigarettes are doing to me, smoke if you whant". --> I have never even tried to smoke or any drug what so ever. I only drink on parties and i only get buzzed.

On the other hand maney of my female frend's parents: They were 18 and they still had to be home by 10pm on Fridays (legal drinking age here is 18). So sinc the time they were 13 they would go out at 6pm, get Drunk, smoke and do drugs, than throw up and clean themselves up by 10pm to go home.

So if you think you can force a kid to do something your MORONIC and just plain dumme. The only way to make a child do something you whant for certain is convincing them it's the right thing to do and let them decide for themselves.

So parents: Warn your kids, then let them do what ever they whant and than help them pick up the peaces. After a while they'll lurn that your just looking out for them and they'll actually listen to you. Respect must be urned, not forced.

Re:Silly moral panic

[Thanshin]

Quite honestly, I hope this is the last one

I regretfully inform you that you're setting yourself up for disappointment.

Slashdot needs to license grammar check patents

[recoiledsnake]

"If you're parenting skills aren't up to snuff, Apple's got a patent on the device that will allow you to control what you child sends and receives.