My imaginary children aren’t using your streaming service – Terence Eden’s Blog
My imaginary children aren’t using your streaming service – Terence Eden’s Blog
Whenever I start up Netflix, I'm asked if I want to create an account for my children. I don't have children. I don't want children. I find most children annoying - not yours, obviously, yours are lovely. But I resent being asked every single time whether my imaginary kids want an account. It's j...
Frankly, if a child somehow makes it into my home, and is left unsupervised long enough to work out which of the 7 remote controls turns on the TV and surround sound system, and figures out how to access Netflix - I'd say they're mature enough to watch whatever they want.
Gold.
My kids are savants about media control systems. You don't need to explain anything, they've got it figured out before they touch the first button.
Netflix does this so that (most of) the children's content appears only in the children's section. This means you don't have to sift through 800 versions of cocomelon to find Singles Inferno. They're literally acknowledging you don't have children and helping you find the content you want, and simultaneously not preventing you from accessing it when your sisters little crotch goblins come over for a visit.
Most first-world-problem shit I've ever heard.
They have 2 good points though (even if I generally agree with you that this is a first world problem). The first is that this will likely show up for parents who have lost a child or potential parents having fertility issues and that does suck.
The second is that it's just good UI to add a little box that says "never show this message again". It wouldn't take but the smallest iota of extra effort to do that. Annoying popups are honestly a first world problem. But they absolutely also show that these companies do not care, while these companies are trying to show they care.
If there ever is anything remotely competitive to Netflix, I'm gone like a shot.
Their "suggestive sell" interface is such garbage. We, the paying customers, should be able to default to a genre search without having to jump hoops every time. We, the paying customers, should be able to hit "not interested" and actually not see suggestions to watch the "not interested" title again. We, the paying customers, should be able to view the available catalog as we choose, not as their manipulative algorithms choose. The only reason we're still with Netflix is because the ad-free version is still affordable, but their content selection system is heavy advertising in and of itself.
Honestly, folks, if you want to watch a couple of movies a week I bet your local public library has a better interface allowing you to choose from new releases and a deep catalog, all for free - you just have to drive by once a week to pick up / drop off your selections.
Most first-world-problem shit I've ever heard.
Yeah I shouldn't criticize my paid service because there are bigger problems out there
No, that is not the reason for a child account that has age based restrictions. That is a reason for having multiple profiles so the recommendations and watch history are separated.
Being forced to have additional profiles you don't need is terrible design.
Don't need yet, and that's my whole point.
Netflix's approach is: "we know you probably don't want this shit, but if you ever do it's behind this big button on page 1".
That's helping you avoid kids content, not hindering you.
But I want my own content bubble organized antithetical to my convenience and I want it now.
This is pretty minor on the scale of enshittification that it happening in pretty much every tech product, but stuff like this is just an example of features being added so someone at the company can point to "improving" the product (so they can point to it during raise or promotion time), because it is safer for kids ignoring that it degrades user experience for a large portion of the customer base.
Unfortunately we've lost our attitude that parents should actually parent and supervise their children. So instead they force everyone to deal with it.
When "parenting" consisted of making sure the rugrats were off the streets by the time the streetlights came on in the evening, it was a little lower maintenance than today.
Now, they have multiple global access terminals in the home, open 24-7-365, that can connect them to anyone/anything anywhere anytime. The physical threats of broken bones, abduction, etc. are less than in Beaver Cleaver's neighborhood, but these days you don't have to worry about the one drug dealer that got chased from the neighborhood last year, these days they can have anything delivered "in discrete packaging" if not to your home then to a convenient parcel pickup box not far from the school bus stop.
They can get into video-chats with law enforcement agents trolling for child-sex, they can access porn you didn't know existed, and they can do it all from "safe mode" of their phone browser after "lights out." Smuggling a porno mag to look at under the covers by flashlight has gone far far more more interactive and easily hidden.
My approach is to confront the challenges in the open. When the OnlyFans.com charge shows up on the bank card, sit down and talk about how paying for sexy things isn't good for either party. Don't take away the bank card, don't take away the internet access, try to teach why the whole thing is a bad idea. I suppose if it gets to be a habitual problem then denying access is the next step, but with respect to internet problems, I don't think we've had that issue yet (after 45 child-years...) Other habitual problems requiring access denial? Sure. All depends on your particular circumstances, but attempting to deny internet access seems like a seriously losing battle in today's landscape.
The worst part is that for most of these services, the child accounts are still functionally useless for parents.
We have a kid who actively seeks out content they know they're not allowed to watch, which means unfortunately a Netflix subscription simply won't work for us because Netflix doesn't allow you to actually password protect your profiles. So our kid can just select the parent profile, or make a new one if they want to watch whatever they want.
As far as I know only Disney+ (and HBO i'm told) allow you to put a login pin on parent accounts to lock kids out. That would be useful, except the Roku we use to watch things on the tv doesn't password protect all of its channels, so we still have to be on top of him to make sure he's staying within disney+...
I gotta be honest, I kinda miss cable tv.
You can restrict certain content (16+, 18+) with a 4 digit pin on Netflix.
He's gonna be a fine rebel.
HBO also allows a code on profiles.
That's good to know, thanks! I wonder if there's actually any content for him on HBO, I'll check it out I guess.
This gives me the same vibes as the fucking New York Times annoying me with the popover prompt to use their app every day. The app to read websites on phones already exists, it's called a browser, and I'm using it. Asking a hundred more times won't change my mind.
I even opened a support case which only resulted in them "passing on the suggestion".
Yeah, I passed that suggestion into the "don't show me content from the New York Times anymore" selection box.
I can't imagine what it is like for bereaved parents who have recently lost a child. Or for those struggling with fertility issues.
Don’t dress up your petty annoyance at having to share a world with parents as saving the bereaved and barren.
Have you been to !childfree@lemmy.world?
i used to be on that when I was on reddit but I had to leave due to too many instances of me reading about people who actually wanted to harm or kill children.
so I'm a bit nervous. i would assume the lemmy instance is a more chill place, maybe? 😅
The UX really is terrible on these, a never ask again option is really simple but they refuse to do it.
I just removed the content filter and gave the kids account to my parents. Free account!!
Just say yes, only use it to watch "Fireplace for your Home." I think you can change the "Kids" icon to whatever character you want it to show.