We broke through that thing so many times that the company gave us a refund and hired me as a "security contractor" to find ways around it. I found a few that they never figured out how to beat - for example opening a document in Word, typing some stuff, and telling the computer to shut down. Windows would shut down all of the other programs (including the computer time monitoring one) before it shut down Word. Word would come up with it's "save/don't save/cancel" prompt and you could just click "cancel." That was arguably my first foray into "hacking."
Edit: corrected name capitalization
(OT nitpick: her name is actually 'danah boyd' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danah_Boyd#Early_life)
Edit: Free on her site, taking a look now.
Isn't it only the ones who are already likely to become hackers that will circumvent the devices in relatively complex ways? Curtailment of liberties is entirely normal for us as it's a simple aspect of our environment.
Emotions are weird, if you're sitting around worrying about your child then you need a hobby. If it's really a problem that your child goes somewhere without texting you if you asked them to then don't let them go out next time. If they are in college and don't answer your calls, then leave them alone, find something else to do, send them an email if you need to inform them of something or have something you want to discuss.
Kids go through weird phases, they lash out at parents for different reasons such as being unhappy with themselves or struggling to find purpose. Talk to them in person, ask difficult questions, if they don't have an answer, ask again later or ask different questions.
Be a good roll-model by being calm, rational, humble, and honest. I can picture the mom who had the idea for this app, controlling, slightly crazy, comes off as bitchy.
What if your significant other installed a similar app on your phone? Would piss you off, right?
If you want to restrict the games kids play or the sites they visit on their phones, that's probably for the better, be sure to inform them of the logical reasons such as the fact that game companies exploit human psychology to create addiction and many apps upload private information that could harm them later in life. But locking their phones because they haven't called you back, I just can't see how that'll do anything but harm in the long-run.
"Because I said so.", "Do as I say, not as I do.", "Say it, say I love you."
If you kid doesn't answer their phone they are either in class, busy, have it on mute, in jail, dead, getting high, in a loud car, at a party with friends, having sex, eating somewhere, or they just don't want to talk to you at the moment. If they are in jail, they'll call you, if they're dead, then there is nothing you can do about it, you'll find out soon enough. In every other situation it's not that critical that you hear their voice, send them a text message and find something to do.
It might just boil down to positive verses negative reinforcement.
Just my 2 cents about actually using this product as a parent. Looking at it as an app idea, it's a good idea and looks well executed. I'm sure many parents will purchase it.
I have no plans to use the app (my oldest daughter is 5), but there are plenty of good reasons a sane parent might want to. As well as plenty of bad reasons.
Attempting to equate spousal (or similar) relationships with parent-child relationships suggests you either have no clue about how adults in such a relationship should relate to one-another or you have no clue about parenting.
I've never said any of those unwanted idiomatic phrases but can still see a place in which I would want a child who relies on me to buy their phone and/or keep them safe to be coerced to respond to a contact request.
>In every other situation it's not that critical that you hear their voice //
That doesn't appear to be the point of the app, the point is to coerce a response instead of allowing a person to ignore you but keep using the phone you purchased.
Suppose my child has absconded, ie gone off without telling me where they're going, I'm about to start my shift at work. Do I miss work and try and find them, or do I use this app and "force" them to respond indicating they're safe & well? This app means you can give your kid a smartphone but enforce a usage pattern coterminous with a single-number phone if required. Having a smartphone isn't some sort of inalienable right for a minor.
If you're an adult (eg at university) then buy your own phone and refuse to let people install apps on it; or not, your call.
This is the equivalent of jerking a dog's leash. It's sad how ready some parents are to deny their children basic human dignity.
If you need to get to work and can't find your child, then whether you go to work or whether you run after your child is a simple matter of setting priorities and following through. Also, if your child takes off without telling you, and you have genuine reason to worry, then there's little reason to think this app will actually be of any help.
The only situation in which this app would "help" would be one where the child is not in any real danger/distress, but you'd still want to reassure yourself of the non-existence of danger (i.e. just calm your nerves), but are too lazy too actually take the steps necessary to do it properly. So lets trample that little human's dignity, for our own selfish desires, since there's only little they can do in return anyways, right?
This is disgusting.
The real tragedy here however is that children don't realize that they're actually the ones with the power in any parent-child relationship, until they've stopped being children and lost the respect for their parents. If they grasped the amount of power they hold, and occasionally jerked their parents around the same way, then these sort of apps most likely wouldn't exist.
I think what the parent is trying to suggest is that you go to work and not try to find them. If they're old enough not to require constant supervision, they'll come around.
Of course this app can be useful in some exceptional cases but not in standard ones.
>Emotions are weird, if you're sitting around worrying about your child then you need a hobby.
If you're worried about your pre-teen while he/she is out roaming the city, you're a good parent. It doesn't mean you have to be freaking out all the time, but my parents cared enough to be concerned if I didn't check in at the deemed intervals.
Adding 112 and 999 to the list would help, but perhaps it's better to just let the kid call whomever they like, and just block "fun" things like texting and other apps. After all, if your kid is out with friends and gets a bit lost, the best person to call will be one of those friends, not the police.
PS this is how you build trust with your kids.
checks GPS log, sees school
does child's homework for him
applies to college for him
goes on job interviews for him
One of my previous employers regaled me with a tale of a parent coming in for an interview with their child. Needless to say, neither got the job.
Also, going to be funny when they work out how to uninstall it.
I mean - as far as I can tell [0] this is the only app this person has done, but they've created the website, set up a company, and I even heard about this on the UK BBC news! And at the moment they only have about 100 downloads?!
It would be interesting to hear the story behind this and how much this all cost. Does anyone know more? How did they manage to get such exposure on launch day/week?
[0] reading http://ignorenomoreapp.com/mountaineer-technology-ventures
Let me clue you into reality. When kids pop out, they are uncivilized savages. It takes a good 25 years (on average) before they stop acting like savages and start resembling a reasonable human being. A reasonable person does not require an explanation as to why answering a call from a parent is important, they just answer it because they are reasonable and civilized and know automatically that answering such a call is the right thing to do in the civilized world. A reasonable person also does not require others to pander to their "preferred method of communication", they just pick up the phone and deal with whatever's on the other end.
Teenagers with phones are like hungry cavemen with shotguns. There has to be a way to pull the plug before things get out of hand and dumb stuff happens. This app is part of the solution. If a teenager's trumped up, uncivilized sense of independence is telling them to disrespect their parents and not answer their call, then this app is a useful tool for parents. The correct mode of operation, of course, is to prompt the child to call their parents so the parents can then tell the child that they're coming to pick them up immediately, and to have the phone ready to hand in because they're never going to see it again. The child should also prepare to have their wings clipped.
Unreasonable savagery can not be made civilized through reasonable discussion. That's why economic sanctions, bombs falling from airplanes, and smartphone crippling apps are still effective tools for civilized people.
I'm sure this would be a good product commercially.
The FAQ is a bit jarring, most of it seems to be self praise.
Alternatively the perfect app to allow you to let your children have freedom to go out by themselves but still to coerce response when it's needed.
It seems a reasonable quid pro quo to me - I give you this tool which is the pinnacle of consumer communication devices but if I need to talk to you then it's locked until you respond.
Doesn't it mean that children who aren't so trustworthy get the benefit of being allowed out when otherwise they wouldn't?
The biggest flaw is that the child may not be ignoring the parent, but simply can't call at that time. Perhaps the kid's phone is in their bag or they are in class or something.
To lock the kid's phone based on an assumption of guilt is like punishing the kid for not eating his vegetables before dinner is served.
I live in a low income area - you would wish many parents around here cared this much and would helicopter their kids. I fear many of them are doomed from the start.
I think this app is a last resort measure, not like a block on computer use but if the kid is being bad about something to get them to respond.
Actually, letting apps hijack the normal disabling of their administrative functions is a massive vuln, as then any piece of malware can do that to prevent it from being removed.
The funny thing is, Android's safe mode isn't that well publicised (I knew it existed, but would have to look up how to enter it), but if apps like this ever proliferated, it definitely would become well known. See how in the UK, since TPB got censored, there are now literally hundreds of reverse proxies available, and since the government pushed 'opt-out' censorship, there are now dozens of proxies explicitly marketed for defeating them, and more and more sites are switching to use TLS.
Given the problems I've heard about with app store purchases from parents in this target market there's zero chance of this actually working, and I'd be surprised if any parent in the target group even believes it would work either.
Read the FAQ and you'll get an idea of the brains (or lack thereof) behind this app: http://ignorenomoreapp.com/faq
"Q: My child ignored my instructions and selected “OK” to the pop-up request to “Disable Device Admin”. How do I restore Ignore No More on their phone?"
"A: I know, I know let me guess the child said, “It was an accident”. First you need to check to see if Ignore No More is still on their phone. If it is then that’s great news. All you have to do is select the device’s Settings icon>Security>Device (or Phone) Administrators where you will then see an empty box beside of Ignore No More Device Admin. Select the empty box; a pop-up will appear, select “Activate”. Ignore No More is now restored on the child’s phone. On the other hand, if the child deleted the app entirely from their phone you will need to download again from the app store."
Better: analytics dashboard on latency of response.
Suppression of emotional signals (response latency) is unlikely to improve communication and could lead to second-order consequences "If you treat me like ___, I will behave like ___".
Or show them how they removed it.
Some parents are assholes. Some kids have other things going on and don't need a helicopter constantly hovering over top of them. And some media outlets need to learn to be critical of the crap that they flog.
Even if the FAQ included some child abuse/help lines, I'd be significantly less angry. But seriously, this app looks like a red flag for extraordinarily controlling parents. And, there is a bunch of research that indicates extremely controlling behaviour is a sign of abuse. What if, as an entire industry, we decide to always err on the side of protecting kids??
Sorry for the rant. I've edited this several times to tone things down, but this app makes me intensely angry. If there is any justice, the app store will remove this garbage.
That said, I don't think this is the greatest of ideas, but I can see cases where it could be a useful tool in parenting. And it is a tool, not a solution that replaces an open dialogue with your kids. Grayclhn said it best[1]: "Of course, a parent could also install an app like this as part of a long process of discussion and negotiation wherein the child repeatedly blows off commitments to check in, blows off even lenient curfews, and struggles to hold up his or her side of the agreement."
Agreed that it is something that is ripe for abuse and helicopter parenting.
(Parent of girl 15, boy 12.)
A: Don’t worry their phone is unlocked. “Ignore No More!” stays visible to your child to help you. The message is a constant reminder to them to answer your calls and texts or else you will lock their phone. If you don’t want to use this feature and want the message to go away, simply open up the parent My Household page and press “Unlock Phone” for that child. Once the child refreshes their screen the message will be gone.
If you market to helicopter parents, that's one thing. If you market to parents who actively enjoy being mean to their children, you should maybe overthink your business model.
This is the first time I've seen anybody substitute their own made up word (notta') for nada though.
Of course nothing stops the kid from lying to their parents which I guess 99% of all kids do.
