That Digital Dad's 2022 Year in Review
Issue #62
Hello and happy holidays to you and your family.
It’s that time of year again. After the spent wrapping paper is cleared and the fridge is stuffed with holiday leftovers, you can sometimes manage to find a fleeting moment of calm. I hope you got to spend some time relaxing and enjoying downtime with the ones you love. And most importantly, I hope you managed to stay safe during any inclement weather.
I was doing a bit of digital housekeeping last week and found myself revisiting my 2022 newsletters. It was a neat trip down memory lane, giving me the chance to reflect on the year and the three themes that shaped the kid-tech industry over the last 365 days.
Big Tech goes Meta
The year started off with lots of talk about the Metaverse. This was a big buzzword, especially for Mark Zuckerberg, who changed Facebook’s name to Meta and declared his intention to build the new frontier of the internet for all of us. Lots of parents, understandably, had questions about the Metaverse and what it meant for their kids. In early 2022, the Metaverse was more of a concept than a reality, and that’s still pretty much the case now. A few hints exist for what it might look like (think: VR experiences, NFTs, digital real estate, etc), but so far, the Metaverse is pretty abstract.
I covered the topic in issues 40 and 41 and shared my thoughts about the rush to commercialize the Metaverse—even as it remained ill-defined. Looking back, I would actually double down on my belief that Facebook probably won’t be the one to lead us to the Metaverse, even though they’re betting the future of the company on it. Its stock is worth about half today what it was at the beginning of the year—meaning it will be much tougher for Zuck and company to continue investing billions of dollars into the Metaverse without pressure from shareholders for more immediate returns. And that’s a bit of foreshadowing for our next theme.
The way business models shape tech
At the risk of sounding like a character in a political thriller, you really need to follow the money if you want to understand the tech we use today. I touched on this theme when I explored how money directly impacts app design in issues 43 and 47. And then I continued to focus on money throughout the rest of the year in issues 48, 49, 52 and 58, which looked at tech business models from lots of different angles: I explained why I look at how an app makes its money when I’m judging its suitability for my kids, and I wrote about how paying more for tech might not be a bad thing. I think this is a theme that will continue to be important because business models shape the tech our kids use every day—and in potentially negative ways.
My own son is now at the age where he wants to try different games from the app store—and when I vet them, I’m honestly amazed at how bad and predatory the experience can be: many “kid-friendly” apps feature massive clickbait ads and dark patterns everywhere. (Spoiler alert: Fortnite maker Epic Games just got handed a massive fine for these kinds of shenanigans—more on that below.) As parents, it’s on us to demand better business models and be willing to pay for the things we really want our kids to use.
A climate of distrust in the tech industry
Finally, I looked at how 2022 was characterized by a widespread lack of trust in technology. I think it’s safe to say that, after so many scandals, privacy invasions and general disregard for user wellbeing on the part of major tech companies, the public’s goodwill has been exhausted. We’re suspicious and downright dubious about Big Tech. From the fake-but-viral sex trafficking allegations about the Gas app in issue 59, to how easy it is for kids to lie about their age online in issue 57, to even more Facebook fines in issue 56, to content moderation gone wrong in issue 55, distrust has taken root and we’re questioning the platforms we use more and more.
The dominant business model in the tech industry has relied on capturing our data and our attention. For the most part, we haven’t been the customer, we’ve been the product. It seems like this premise was beginning to wear thin for consumers in 2022. As a result, I think we’ll see parents getting warier and more selective about the technology we use with our families—and I think we’ll see more people willing to pay for greater peace of mind in their tech products. And I’m hopeful that we’ll see a shift towards high-quality tech for kids in particular. There are great developers out there who will put your family’s interests first. There are companies that won’t sacrifice your privacy for profit or disregard your wellbeing in service of the bottom line. I know that’s how we feel at Kinzoo, and hopefully, 2023 is the year that like-minded companies can help rebuild trust in the tech industry.
TL;DR
Too long; didn't read. It shouldn't be a full-time job to keep up on industry news, so here is a mercifully quick summary of some other notable developments:
In August, the California Legislature enacted legislation called the Age Appropriate Design Code Act. It puts the onus on platforms to consider the safety and privacy of children when they create any products or services for younger users. Companies will need to ensure that their products don’t expose kids to harmful content, threaten their privacy, or show them inappropriate ads—among other things. Basically, it compels tech companies to use common sense when designing products for children. Sounds pretty reasonable, right? Apparently not to Big Tech. An industry group called NetChoice is suing to block the legislation. The group includes companies like Amazon, Google, Meta, TikTok and Twitter, and they claim that the new act violates the First Amendment. It’s disappointing, but not entirely surprising. Stay tuned for upcoming newsletters—I’ll look at this topic in more depth.
If your kids like gaming, you’re probably familiar with Fortnite. The game’s creator, Epic Games, has been hit with a $520 million dollar fine for “illegally collecting children’s personal information, of harming young players by matching them with strangers on Fortnite while enabling live communications and, separately, of using manipulative techniques, called “dark patterns,” to trick millions of players into making unintentional purchases.” This penalty is substantially larger than the $170 million dollar fine faced by Google in 2019 for illegally harvesting kids’ data on YouTube and using it to show them targeted ads.
And Lastly
Here are a few more pieces of original writing from me and my team—just in case you're keen for more:
Sometimes it can feel like empathy is conspicuously absent from online communication. It also seems like people feel empowered to say horrible things on the internet that they would never say to someone face-to-face. But, it’s possible to instill empathy online, too. Here are a few simple strategies from my team to help foster kindness in your kids.
While likes, comments and follower counts offer a quick dopamine hit to lift you up in the moment, these digital social validation mechanisms can be damaging to kids’ wellbeing. Here’s a piece from my team about how likes and hearts affect children.