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Originally Posted by JSWolf
The way I look at it is if a parent needs this app to protect his/her child, then that parent is nt doing a good job in terms of what the child is reading.
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Or look at it another way: it may be a good way to expand what you permit the child to read, simply because of a few words.
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If you are going to allow your kid(s) to read a book with inappropriate words, read the book first and discuss it with your kid(s). Or read it to your kid(s) and do the modifying of the words yourself so the meaning is kept and the words not changed too much to be incorrect or inappropriate.
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Even though I don't entire agree with the app, I do see its place. This is a good example of it. Very few parents have the time to read and discuss every book with their child. In the past they would have dealt with this by selecting books from publishers that are family friendly, accepted the word of others, or used their own prior knowledge from reading as a child. All of these have their pitfalls. For example, their childhood reading experiences don't apply to newly published books. I have also run into teachers who regret selecting a book for read alouds with their students because a popular book from a school friendly publisher wasn't necessarily appropriate for all of the children in the class. I would imagine that the same applies to parents.
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However, trust works very well. If I ever read a book that an app like that has changed and I found out about it, I would be very upset because to me it would feel like my parents do not trust me. And that's more damaging than the original words in the book.
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Trust is to be earned, not given. Children who understand that are probably prepared to read those bad words because they understand that using bad words is a way to lose trust. Hopefully they would also have enough sense to ask about those words to understand why they are bad. Children who do not understand that trust is earned are unlikely to be prepared to read those bad words. It is best if each parent makes that decision based upon their own child, rather than letting an app do it. On the other hand, letting the app do it is making the decision after a fashion.