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Comment by pants2 | Hacker News Reader

Feels like in my youth the biggest risk was stumbling on some freaky gore/porn that scarred you, but somehow that doesn't seem as bad as the risk of getting hooked on dopamine-optimized brainrot, alt-right propaganda, or micro transaction focused games.

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This. I was a kid with too much free time and exposed to the internet with some but not enough supervision.

I stumbled with some f up stuff that i still remember to this day. But somehow I'm grateful that it wasn't the current brainrot

I couldn't agree more, this pretty much describes me in my youth. I am legitimately terrified of what would have happened to me had I had access to some/certain alt-right influencers, I know for a fact that a younger me would have easily fallen into that mess. I get why it's appealing (at least to a certain person in a certain headspace).

I'm so glad the worst I feel like I ran into were freaky gore/porn.

Yep, that's exactly my fear. The brain rot zombification of our society. How do I stop my kids from getting suckered into an endless scrolling doom loop?

> How do I stop my kids from getting suckered into an endless scrolling doom loop?

I think the first and best way to ensure this is to not do it yourself.

Pretty much every parent I know does not allow their preteens and younger unsupervised tablet/phone use because the internet is so bad for them at that age. Typically they allow a curated set of content during specific times, and devices are physically removed from the children's environment afterward.

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