This is very extreme take. I learned to program at age 10. It is an amazing tool for mind development. Had to invent sine and cosine tables to make my computer games, before even encountering the concept at school.
Is that survivor's bias? there are many other mental development goals chidren should have. for the very small number of children that will learn to program at that age, there is no harm in delaying it a few years, but for the vast majority whose development would be stunted, or worse, they'll be harmed.
Some kids learn to drink and smoke at a that age too, and many turn out ok.
Kids who drink qt an earlier age respect it more. Americans waiting until 21 ends up in binge drink / problem drinking. Social media is going to be the same.
No they don't, that's a lie adults tell themselves. Many adult alcoholics started drinking as children. People who "respect it more" tend to also be alcoholics. Very few people who start drinking as children abstain as adults.
Keep in mind that alcohol is also a carcinogen. Similar to cigarettes, even one drink shouldn't be tolerated. Even if a certain amount will have no ill effects on average, impacts on individuals depends on individual factors, so one harmless drink for you might be one deadly drink for someone else. It is poison.
That said, I don't judge anyone who uses substances. But there is no tolerable threshold to giving children poison.
same and about the same age. however, completely different times. I thought about this a lot and have safely concluded that if I was 9-10 years old now programming would quickly turn into gaming and doom scrolling and … given a choice now of not being exposed to it at same age or nothing until say HS I would choose the latter
Speaking as someone in their 20s - no, I don't think it's a "completely different time". Just 10 years ago, I first learned programming from scripting languages; SourcePawn from Team Fortress 2, and Lua from Roblox/GMod. Predators, hive minds, and self-destructing behavior from children wasn't suddenly invented or rejuvenated after 2016.
All 3 were a total hotbed of bad influences for a child: Team Fortress had trade pub servers with people doing sprays of literal CP and wearing custom lewd skins to harass users with them - and people with very questionable social skills and intentions huddled up in realtime microphone comms with children, Roblox's predator problem for the last 14+ years (at least that I can attest) is suddenly en vogue now that they're a public company and there's stock shorting to be had, GMod is still the community with the most colorful vocabulary I've ever encountered - plus grooming. And much more.
Indeed, you can (and I did) get burned by these actualities when exposed to such communities in your youth - and it can cost you real money, real time, real idealism/innocence, and real mental health. However, I think being exposed to softwares, systems and games that inspired curiosity and led me toward a path of WANTING to contribute brought me to this software development career and life path, and it would have been much more inaccessible and unknown to me in any other way. And I favorited a comment from another HN user a few days ago that goes in astute depth on why that path can only be organically introduced and self-governed [1].
I referred to these places earlier in my comment as "bad influences". I think the single-most powerful thing a parent can do tasked with this dilemma - especially during an upbringing in systemically hard, uncertain, and turbulent times - is teaching them how to identify, avoid, and confront bad influences. Equipped with that, and knowing how to handle yourself, is of utmost importance.
I agree. my argument is that the benefits of learning from youtube or computers in general is overshadowed by their harm for children undergoing development. Once a person is more or less developed, they can tackle riskier learning sources.
