RE: Deviant Natives
You are viewing a single comment's thread:
They're kids, they need to be protected by their adults. You wouldn't let a child near a car or a firearm unless you could provide a safe education, and we need to be treating digital technology as equally as dangerous. Especially with the gamblification of everything.
Predators spend all their time, energy and resources perpetrating their scams. I'm sure adults fall for it just as much as kids do, the profitability of pig butchering scams is off the charts.
The solution is education; both for kids and adults alike. We all need dramatically more education in this space... both with what to watch out for, but also what to do when we're inevitably scammed - especially with GenAI making more convincing deep fakes.
Don't blame the kids, it's not their fault. The fault lies squarely on parents, teachers and law enforcement... as it would with any other crime.
The challenge is, many adults are conditioned these days too. Most of my friends don't truly admit the dangers, because it is more convenient not to.
I don't think I blamed the kids.
Also, on a related side note - wouldn't this be a place for AI? For instance for basic phishing scams to reduce profitability, an AI agent could identify and then engage with the scammer, leading them on and on but ultimately getting nowhere. Same for some of this explicit image phishing on kids phones - "if it looks explicit" do not share and add warning after warning.
Oh sorry, because you called them deviant natives and asked at the end if they'll ever learn, I thought you were putting the blame on the kids who got scammed.
I think your friends don't admit the dangers because of a lack of education... they may truly not understand just how dangerous it all is... I have to imagine they want to protect their kids however possible.
Yeah, this would be a great case for GenAI - although it'd pretty much be an arms race as the scammers also develop GenAI to defeat the protecting GenAI... until we all get exhausted and log off forever.
No. As said, their deviant behaviour is now mainstream behaviour. and if they will ever learn is a fair question - as you said, it is about education and most have had at least some education on this, but haven't learned. At least in Finland, digital education is part of the curriculum - they obviously haven't learned yet.
Even the parents who feed their kids junk food daily, say they want the best for their kids.
It is an arms race anyway. Who can create general intelligence and monopolise the entire market first.
It's truly hard to know how far away artificial general intelligence is, because that's the development that's all happening behind closed doors. It might already exist, it might be decades away or it might truly be impossible - who knows?
And on a side note - if thirty years ago one of your friends said that they give explicit photos of themselves to random people in the street, what would you have thought? :D
Did you ever see People magazine in Australia? It was super trashy and had a section where women could send in their nudes to be published.
I do think it's important to say that these scammers are grooming both kids and adults over weeks, months, years to get those photos. They're experts at slowly building trust... I genuinely think both you and I would fall for it too if we were single - it's what they do all day every day.
When I was a teenager I had a friend struggling with self image problems. Beautiful girl but just spiralling in relentless self criticism. I showed her a few of those 'wives and girlfriends' sections to move the Overton window a little.
I want to be kind, but lets just say you'd flick through the magazine and you knew for sure, when you got to that section. Reassured her that all sorts of shapes and sizes can find love and acceptance.
That was good of you! A positive side to the internet is that the traditional gatekeepers of media have lost of a lot of their power and people who don't fit those gatekeeper's ideals have gained popularity and are visible to everyone.
I do find it weird sometimes that we've decided as a society what facial configurations or body configurations are attractive or not attractive, and treat people differently because of it... when it doesn't actually mean anything.
I'm calling the moment. Sandi Thom with Punk Rocker recorded in her basement and the first song to really go viral on the internet. No permission from anyone, no marketing. We just decided as a group, that our friends should hear it and millions did.
Same energy from Iyah May more recently, but the algorithms are in charge now.
Punk Rocker is so good, I haven't heard it in a while so thanks for that nostalgia.
I hadn't heard Iyah May's song before, it's such an interesting song. It has a really strong rebellious/subversive vibe, but considering Trump won the popular vote in the US, the lyrics might technically appeal to the mainstream now. I was really hoping for an anti-RFK Jnr, anti-Trump or anti-ICE line in the lyrics to truly be rebellious but I think that would have alienated all the listeners, so in a song about everyone having to pick sides, she still did have to firmly pick a side (which I totally understand, it's impossible to make a living with support)... but also, to me, deflates the whole premise a bit. Super catchy though.
Yeah it's catchy, for sure. It predates Trump's win, so ICE and RFK Jr weren't on the radar at the time, more a Covid era commentary.
Ahhhhhhhh, sorry! I just assumed it was recent-recent.