iOS Screen Time setting blocks searches for “Asian” | Hacker News Reader

iOS Screen Time setting blocks searches for “Asian”

twitter.com

17 pointsmortenjorck10 comments

> iOS built-in adult content filter blocks all searches with the keyword "Asian,” assuming it's porn-related. Which means a 12 y/o Chinese-American girl might Google "Asian hairstyles" and find out that her culture is blocked as "adult content."

> Searches like "teen mental health resources" are also blocked, because "teen" is on the blacklist. Which is so dumb for a feature that's probably being used BY TEENS!

Wow. One of the biggest tech companies in the world, people.

The entire screen time feature is incredibly lame and half assed. As is 50% of Apples output these days.

If you really need to monitor/block your child's online behavior (and cannot handle it with a good talk/trust/etc.), give https://nextdns.io/ a try:

* Set up a profile on their site, for example with blocking of porn and enforcing of safe search

* Install the app on their iPhone and link to the config

* Set a passcode on the app

Can't the child just delete the app, do the deed, and reinstall the app? Or just disable the VPN temporarily for that matter.

I would think that an MDM like Jamf Now could enforce iOS settings.

Sounds like their recognition model wasn't tested for false correlations...

Oh hi! I don't really use Twitter, but I noticed this and wanted to help it get on the right people's radars.

Apple's scale is what makes this especially unacceptable. How many children and teens around the world are using iOS devices with parental restrictions enabled? There is a huge audience dealing with this incredibly poorly-engineered and poorly-considered feature.

If you honestly hope to get onto the right people's radar, I encourage you to literally file a Radar! https://developer.apple.com/bug-reporting/

As for "huge audience" - I mean, if so, wouldn't it have been noticed years ago? The feature is buried three dialogs deep and doesn't work well; Apple should probably just remove it.

I obviously don't have the actual stats, but I think this is widely used by parents (of the parents I know, usage of the various Screen Time restrictions seems standard, which makes sense to me).

Why hasn't it been noticed? The user isn't the customer. Parents enable the feature, but I doubt they actually use the iPad with filters on and look at what it's blocking. One of the first replies to my tweet was a mom who had been asked by their child yesterday why they'd blocked the word "teen"[1] - and of course they didn't know!

And great idea on filing a Radar as well! (I already backchanneled this to a couple friends who work at Apple, so hopefully it just gets duped to their reports.)

[1] https://twitter.com/drivingmzstacey/status/12298581552380231...

Any blocking can lead to confusing and non obvious results - another reason to oppose ISPs and states doing it. I run a block list (2 million or so URLs in Pihole) for reducing adverting and tracking. The things that happen can be unpredictable and unexpected, particularly because issues are rarely encountered. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if users of this iOS feature have had problems and haven’t known the source or reported them (even when there is an error message).

If anyone wants to file more Radars, mine is FB7590236 (so you can just tell them yours is a dupe of that one and they'll combine them).

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