Parental Controls
Jun. 11th, 2002 10:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
muninnhuginnStaring blank-eyed and exhausted at the TV last night, I caught the latest variant on the AOL advert (I may actually have seen it before, but probably with the sound down, and my lip reading's not up to much): Dad pleased with the fact they hadn't needed to 'phone the free helpline (that does seem to exist as a single word these days), offspring enthusing over the invaluable help with his homework, Mum praising the parental controls. So what's wrong with that?
Well:
If I had the energy I'd script the new ad.
I suppose actually this is the pedant in me objecting to the potential ambiguity of "parental controls" which I tend to assume means control over parents and not control by parents. So how does that work with "parental Leave"?
Well:
- Dad installs. There's a perfectly competent child around to do it for him
- Child uses it for homework. There are far better things for him to do.
- Mum sets up the parental controls. I'd always assumed that the parental controls where what the child used to prevent parents from finding out what said child is actually doing on the web, perhaps receiving a small kick-back from Dad or Mum, or both (I'm not biased here!), to hide what they're doing thereby preventing any embarrassment.
If I had the energy I'd script the new ad.
I suppose actually this is the pedant in me objecting to the potential ambiguity of "parental controls" which I tend to assume means control over parents and not control by parents. So how does that work with "parental Leave"?
