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Request for product: “Parent bot” for kids

3 points by arikr ↗ HN
Millions of people in China talk with chatbots and some have fallen in love.

I believe that a use for chatbot technology that would be valuable to the world is as “parent figures/mentors” for kids.

How would it work: It would need to be connected with something kids want. Kids have a large appetite for entertainment, especially humor. Start there, and then perhaps have a separate section where kids can ask for advice. The bot could then do things like cognitive behavioral therapy, ask questions that prove insight, and suggest other resources to the kids.

8 comments

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exolymph
My guess is that most people ("normies" if you will) will find this idea creepy. I know that may seem like cognitive dissonance when parents will happily plop their kids in front of the TV or YouTube, but something about "robots" freaks people out.
arikr
Definitely. I don't think it should be called a "parent bot" and I don't think it should be targeted at parents at all. I think it should be distributed/targeted at the end users i.e. kids.
exolymph
How would you go about finding the kids and signing them up?
arikr
This would be hard. But kids certainly manage to find products, when they love them. e.g. flash games ~10 yrs ago, certain iPhone games that everyone loves now, Snapchat now, etc.

Word of mouth. Making a product that 100 kids are obsessed with, and go from there.

andymurd
Maybe not "parent bot" but "buddy bot"?

My kid's school has a buddy system to help prevent bullying, wherein each young child gets buddied with another kid that is four/five years older. If they have any problems (with anything at school, not just bullying), they have a friendly face that they can ask for advice or intervention. This works because the buddy is not a parent or teacher, and does not attempt to replace either adult role.

Could a bot help in a similar manner?

olivercreashe
What a terrible idea!

What kids need is actual parents that provide structure, a good home and learning experiences, not constant 24/7 entertainment.

Perhaps this is why i see so many parents delegate their responsibilities to their ipads and let their kids drool while watching entertainment instead of interacting with them and parenting them.

Disclaimer: father of two who don't need tech crap or constant entertainment to be happy.

arikr
Yes, kids do need actual parents that are great. That would be ideal, if every kid had excellent parents.

Unfortunately, many parents are not great.