TJ Walker hired MIT-trained consultants to block his daughter from Facebook, but she bypassed the parental controls in seconds. He argues that social media apps and phone operating systems are deliberately designed to make restrictions easy for teens to crack. Parents should regularly inspect devices because standard parental controls don't actually work.
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I'll go ahead and say I don't let my teenager use Facebook. To my knowledge, she does not have Facebook on her phone when I check it, when I check on the parental control. So, what does that actually mean? It means she's probably on Facebook and there's nothing seemingly I can do it. I've hired consultants. I've hired people who, compared to me, have PhDs from MIT in computer software. to try to get social media in general and phone use in general down on my daughter's phone. Can't do it. She laughs in my face every time I do it. She cracks it in about half a second. And that is by design. Maybe she's the most genius kid in the world. Like to think that, but maybe not. Maybe Facebook and all the other social media platforms design their phones or design their applications, design their websites in such a way that you do have to have not one but 3 PhDs from MIT to actually install correct parental controls. Otherwise, any kid with a room temperature IQ or above is going to be able to crack that code, that parental limit, in about 10 seconds. And if you say, oh no, not my kid, you may want to check your kid's phone a little more. Ultimize.