The Kids Are Alright

Information War, Model T and Resistance

Dec 17, 2018

Tencent has introduced age restrictions for their video games in China. Players under 18 are limited to play two hours per day, while those younger than 12 are limited to one hour of gaming per day.

To enforce the restrictions, Tencent verifies the identity of players by tapping into a government database of Chinese citizen. Every new player is required to provide personal information, and a photo.

To play an unlimited amount of hours, kids are creating false profiles using the identities of their parents and grandparents. This process includes taking a photo of their parent while they are sound asleep, holding their identity card in front of the sleeping parent.

Today there is a lot of discussion around the unintended consequence of technology. ‘Closer together, further apart’ is used to describe the paradox of how we have never been more connected, while never been more lonely. Other mentioned consequences ranges from an inability to withhold concentration to the breakdown of the democratic state.

I’m still optimistic when it comes to technology.

The Internet as a technology is still young. Only last year did more than half of the World’s population get access to the Internet. The social media platforms that get a lot of blame these days are even younger. Facebook was created in 2004. Instagram in 2010. Fortnite in 2017.

When the first Model T was produced in 1908 it didn’t include safety features like seat belt and flashing lights. Those are industry standards today, but weren’t hundred years ago. It took continued innovation and regulation to reach the safety levels of today (still 37,461 people were killed in car accidents in 2016 in the US alone).

If Facebook was Model T, many of the safety features of are still to be invented.

It is said that humans have suffered three big loses in modern time. First Copernicus showed that The Earth is not the center of the universe. Then Darwin’s evolution theory proved that humans through natural selection originates from apes, making us not much different from other beings. Finally Freud’s psychoanalytic theory showed that many of our actions are controlled by our unconscious mind.

The one thing that makes me slightly itchy when it comes to the Internet is that we somehow seem to be on the verge of another loss. As more of our actions and thinking happens while connected to the internet, our unconscious mind is no longer private.

We search for answers to doubt, sickness and fear on the internet. I’m rarely very conscious of what I actually do online, nor where I do it. It all just happens.

A few weeks ago Renee DiResta published one of the best articles I’ve read this year. It is titled “The Digital Maginot Line”, and in it Renee argues that there is a war going on, and that we are all involved.

When we think of wars, we imagine soldiers, drones, nukes. But all of these images of war are outdated. Today’s war is based on information. The territory is the human mind. And Renee argues that if you aren’t a combatant, you are the territory.

When I read stories of how Chinese kids are hacking the system I become happy. It restores my hope in our ability to do resistance in the information war. It reminds me of how I found loopholes in technology back in my school days. It shows how it is still possible to go off-road on the information highway.

If you feel somehow similar, you might enjoy a few of the examples shared in this Twitter thread. My favorite is the kid activating screen-recording to figure out the password of their parent.

Due Diligence

Few stories following up on last week’s issue.

YouTube Rewind 2018 is now officially the most disliked video on YouTube. Of everything that is written and said on the topic, I think Marques Brownlee has the best analysis of what is wrong with this year’s rewind video.

A recent episode of the a16z podcast adds some interesting thoughts and perspective on how video will develop in the mobile age. It is worth a listen for anyone interested in technology and entertainment.