Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/03/11/an-8-year-old-con-artist-ran-a-brilliant-grift-to-get-out-of-going-to-school-over-zoom.html
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My sister has essentially given up on Zoom class for her and is now having to fully homeschool her. “At least I get to help you around the house” my niece says innocently. What a sweetheart.
[…]
My sisters friend asks why she did that and she replies “Oh it wasn’t working well so I was trying to fix it.”
Only 8 years old. Impressive. These parents are in for a wilder ride than they bargained for.
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The ingenuity of children never fails to amaze.
Quite a conundrum for software developers, too - how do you design an authentication method that protects against hackers successfully logging into an account, but also prevents reluctant authorized users from failing to log in?
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This kid is going to grow up to be either a really great infosec professional, or the leader of the Republican Party.
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Is this a different girl from two weeks ago?
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For the sake of everyone, get the kid some coding courses/toys asap.
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Nice idea, but it sounds like what she really wants is to NOT be sitting in front of a computer…?
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Same kid. What a ride that must have been for her pulling it off.
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Environmental sciences courses with a lot of outdoor projects instead?
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When my kids were much much younger, we had a family computer with a passworded screensaver, so they couldn’t just help themselves when they wanted.
We also had a TV in the other room, but you couldn’t see the TV from the computer.
My (then 8yo) tied a string to the mouse, and pulled it all the way to the other room, so she could periodically tug on it so the screensaver wouldn’t activate, and she could watch a show on TV, and then go back to the Computer.
That’s when I knew I was in trouble.
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Maybe. Or food science, since she was into helping out around the house? Something more tangible.
What I mostly took from the story (aside from a clever kid) was that the education system in this case likely wasn’t supported when they had to move to online, and it’s not keeping the kids engaged. It’s a bummer.
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Sorry, obligs:
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If it weren’t for those pesky child labor laws, kids would be ideal SQA testers.
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Back in the '90s (before she had any of her own), Wanda Sykes did a great stand-up routine where she described the way all the parents she knew would talk about children. She said they’d always look away during the second part of a statement that went something like this:
“Kids - they’re a lot of work…but they’re worth it.”
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This already exists with hardware keys such as the YubiKey: https://fidoalliance.org/fido2/
This wouldn’t work if Zoom was accessed through a Learning Management System that automatically logs you into Zoom but doesn’t have the same lockout protocol weakness at its front door.
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Do they even make orange jumpsuits in her size?
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An hour on the phone with Zoom tech support and they couldn’t figure out that her account was simply password-time-locked?
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Yeah, this is the part of the story I call BS on. Further there’s a special kind of zoom for teachers that tells them exactly what problems students who aren’t logging in are having. It’s pretty much surveillance software for schools.
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yes
Sure, it’s locked now, but why was she kicked out and unable to get back in to begin with?
“Ma’am, is your daughter, by any chance, evil?”
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