介绍:
Lincoln: The most widely used child surveillance app in South Korea has been pulled from the market after security concerns. Officials from the Korea Communications Commission said that "Smart Sheriff" has been removed from Google’s Play store, adding that the Korean government planned to shut down the service to existing users as soon as possible. A Korean law passed earlier this year that says all new smartphones sold to teenagers to be equipped with software which can be used by parents to check on their kids' social media activity.I wonder what you would think of that, Wu You. Is this something that you think would ever take hold in China, this kind of child-following app that they have here?
WY: If it is for surveillance purposes, we can see the question can be “How much surveillance is too much?” It’s more like a surveillance app, and it serves the purpose of protecting the kids from seeing all those kind of pornography or all the bullying sentences on their cellphone, but does it really work? Because nowadays, the kids, they can also log on the internet, they have computers, they have ipads, they have all those kinds of digital gadgets. Even though at home you can forbid the kids by using this kind of app on their cellphone, what about in school? What about outside? They can always log on the internet, and the internet has everything on it.
Michael: I think it’s worth pointing out, as well, I mean, we’re talking about Korea, and, Wu You, you were talking about things relating to China, there. This part of the world is known for being very tech-savvy, and I wonder, you know, for people who have grown up with this technology, who’ve had it all their lives, if you’re ten, or eleven, or twelve years old, and you’re being confronted with this sort of blocking technology, if you like, surely, for some of them who are extremely tech-savvy, it wouldn’t be too difficult actually to disable it… [Lincoln: Yeah, that’s true] [WY: Yes]..and to get around these restrictions that have been imposed on them. When we’re talking about ethical concerns, it’s important to mention here, you know, the Korean government passed this law that said, if you’re under 18, you have to have a smartphone installed with this sort of software.
Lincoln: I’m sure that it exists, as well, for the safety aspect, which, of course, has now been undermined, so we don’t really know how good that is, exactly, but, yeah. I don’t know what you think, Wu You?
WY: The more you say that, “I want to protect you, and you are forbidden to watch all those kind of websites”, I think, especially for the teenagers, if they are really at a very sensitive age, they would be quite aggressive on that.
Lincoln: That’s true, and I do think – we’ve spoken about this before, as well, and we’ve talked about how being too strict with teenagers can actually be counter-productive, by keeping them away from something that might harm them, or something like that, you’re actually pushing them towards it, and it’s natural for teenagers to want to flex at their boundaries, they want to test the limits, they want to see how far they can go. But if you set the limits so much in stone, then are you not actually harming their personality, as well, or their growth as a person?
Michael: If I was sixteen, and I was being told I couldn’t do something, even if I had no intention of doing it, I think I would then immediately at least give it a try, just to spite whoever was telling me I couldn’t do it.
Lincoln: Yeah, and, I mean, this “stalker app”, as it’s worded, the smartphone app, it’s a digital manifestation of that.
Michael: Well, yeah. That phrase “stalker app”, that rather negative epithet there, is sometimes used by suspicious spouses to catch their significant others cheating, you know, as a method of private investigation, and, you know, these have also drawn ethical concerns internationally, as well.
