@chu

when my kids were in primary school (800m walk home) I had a discussion with another mother and she said she'd given her daughter a smartphone to protect her. When I asked "What from?" she answered "Pedophiles." And so I laughed and said "She's more likely to meet pedophiles on the internet with that phone than on the 5 minute walk home from school." That was not what she wanted to hear.

@fritzoids

Nobody likes the truth.

How is that phone supposed to protect her from pedos anyways. Use it as brick to throw at them?

@chu

LOL

Now that my kids have phones to take to school (their passes for public transport are on there and sometimes teachers will open up the WiFi and let them do stuff and the secretaries are apparently hesitant to let kids use the landline to call parents when they need to), the most serious conversation I've had with them is to please not look at other people's screens... I remember Rotten dot com and I know that some kids like to shock others... so I've told them there are things you can't unsee and things that will cause nightmares for weeks.

We also have a rule that us parents know the passwords and will occasionally go through their messages. The phones are not to be taken to bed. The parental controls are set so there's a time-limit on the screen being on and on the apps that can be used.

@fritzoids

And in all seriousness, the self protection I gave my daughter is martial art training since age 6. It was a top priority for me as I suffer from trauma, every woman I know suffers from trauma of one sort or another via harassment or assault. I started looking into martial art schools near us since the stroller days.

Just turned 11 and will likely do her black belt testing in December. She thankfully takes her training seriously. I was looking at some of the kicks the other day. She can break boards quite easily (she has to for tests) but I was thinking a bit more growing (she's physically small for 11) her speed and technique can probably break a rib pretty soon.

The reality is that by the time she calls for help, it'll be too late. How long does it take me to get there? She needs to down the guy and run to somewhere where people are who can help her. The phone is a false sense of security. Self defense will at least buy her time to run. And boy can she run. She's fast.

@MikeFromLFE @fritzoids

Agree in principle but also want to add that as women, our threats normally come from people we know in situations that start off non threatening. Random, on street violence is rare and not even the thing I'm honestly most afraid of.

I watched 8 de-escalate a situation in the playground last week. They know the basics of staying away from threats but every woman will tell you, those aren't the ones we fear most. It's the ones coming from trusted people when we least expect it and wished we kicked our way out of there. Had I landed my attacker in the ER, there would be no questions about whether or not I asked for it.

It was in what I thought was a safe space with someone I trusted. Those threat assessment techniques fail us because these people get there by perfecting a non threatening persona. And they are the nicest people to us, to kids, to everyone.