
Request for product: “Parent bot” for kids - arikr
Millions of people in China talk with chatbots and some have fallen in love.<p>I believe that a use for chatbot technology that would be valuable to the world is as “parent figures&#x2F;mentors” for kids.<p>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.
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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?

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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.

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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.

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exolymph
How would you go about finding the kids and signing them up?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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arikr
Originally posted on Medium [1]. HN is probably better. I'm sure some things
I've left unclear so I'll watch the comments and looking forward to going
back-forth with anyone interested.

1: [https://medium.com/@betterpeople/request-for-product-
parent-...](https://medium.com/@betterpeople/request-for-product-parent-bot-
for-kids-7443e0e4360b#.psbl7xx0i)

