Show HN: Erin – Open-source and self-hosted TikTok feed for your own videos

This is great for creating a media-garden for your children!

Kid content on YouTube and TikTok can be extremly disturbing, even for an adult. Until they turn 16 I intend to vet most media myself on a self-hosted server.

I thought things had changed after ElsaGate but I peeked into the airbnb room at a friend's party the other day and the kids were watching youtube, and it seems that type of content still has a hold. The kids were watching some really long video of this guy that kept making an AI-esque youtube-thumbnail style open mouth face after some 5 second event occured. E.g: Man runs into door, makes youtube face. Man tries to sit on toilet, but the toilet lid is down. He lifts it, and finds the toilet's full of colored balls, youtube face. Driving, shot of a speed bump, shot of him bouncing in his seat and hitting his head on the ceiling of the car, youtube face.

The kids were utterly enthralled. I wish I could find a link to the video but it was just some autoplay on a smart tv and I never managed to grab it before leaving the party.

Slight tangent, but it's my intuition that some version of this is the end game for media. Completely compelling, AI created, individually attuned videos generated in or near real time that appeal so well to the individual (adult) viewer they overwhelm our learned resistance. Infinite Jest, but rather than dying laughing you orient your entire life around engaging with the content.

> Until they turn 16 I intend to vet most media myself on a self-hosted server.

Are you going to use the same methods your parents used to do this for you/

Yes. Before the internet, my parents looked at the PG rating of every movie we rented at Blockbuster. Many parents did.

When I was 16, nearly all the media I consumed was vetted/regulated by the FCC.

if we can fit that power into a box that can fly with me to alpha centauri, i think we'll be ok

once we figure out feeding and waste management, entertainment over a low-bandwidth link will be tricky

Would you consider that good?

I grew up with the Internet and people sharing shock horror sites with some very questionable content. It seems we all mostly still grew up fine.

Really? I'm a millennial and most of the content I consumed came from

  * Initially various Warez sources (KDX , eMule etc) (2000-2005 I think)
  * later on liveleak, 4chan,  digger (2006-2007? Not sure anymore), 
  * Then stumble upon, 9gag (08-10)
  * finally ending at reddit (2010-2014, that was the year spez edited user comments. Very rarely used it since)

I vividly remember watching pretty fucked up shit back then, like racists executions of teenagers by police officers (South America) and a lot of sexual content, which is pretty disturbing from today's perspective if I don't completely misremember them.

There's a difference between accidentally stumbling on shocking TikTok content and willingly browsing a gore site.

If my kid really wants to check it, it might be acceptable, but I'm not ok with an algorithm showing it by surprise.

i bet before the internet?

However, none of that was fed to you by algorithms, but rather your own curiosity for weird stuff and your ability to find it. I am not saying that it is good or bad, but in my book, it is different from infinite algorithmic feeds we currently have.

My parents never restricted me access, but talked with me openly about movies, games, or websites they saw me using/playing when they came to my room. I didn't take any precautions, or fear their reactions... because they were open about things with me.

Some discussions went pretty deep, others not really.

Moreover, they usually would spend time with us late evening watching interesting stuff. Given how open they were, me and siblings would ask about it too. They weren't the type that watched the most banal thing either.

I did end up visiting many strange websites. But the way they educated me never came second. I did start concerning myself with what I consumed.

Honestly it's better to open up, talk, keep up with what they watch but in a way that can be educative for them (i.e. question, discuss).

This is mostly things above 10 yo, granted. Before that I didn't have internet. But my friends did, and I did spend lots of time with friends.

My point is, it's better to confront with real life things sooner and have the time to talk. After 16 no one has time :)

Not all (or a big majority) of parents will be like this.

Until they are, screentime and internet access should be regulated for young people.

Parents think their kids are safe at home but the whole world is coming into it.

You won't know for another 10-20 years for what you are de-sensitized to.

Also, your experience won't be anyone else's. Assuming so can create challenges.

Good point

How do you know it's 10 - 20 years?

I'm not alone though, all the childhood people I grew up with that were exposed to this questionable content seem functioning fine now.

Although I would agree that people and especially children shouldn't use TikTok or addictive things like that, but I'm mainly talking about the content specifically.

I wouldn't want my kid browsing TikTok or anything with addictive recommendation system either, but I was mainly talking about explicitly taking effort to keep teenagers away from questionable content. But actually I'm not sure exactly how much policing the OP intended.

It seems to me like a way to get your kid to not tell you anything in fear of censorship.

this difference is that none of that was mainstream, less than one percent of my high school ever read 4chan or even knew what it was. almost literally every kid today has a smart phone, the vast majority of them are on youtube, and an absolute ton of them are on tiktok.

when older millennials were young, it was mostly television, movies, maybe some radio, and maybe some CDs/tapes. and as the previous person said, this was all extremely moderated and you didn't have unlimited access to most anything

Yeah, but OP was talking about vetting and policing content. I fully agree that addictive algorithms are bad though.

People in my school were constantly pranking each other with this type of content, so everyone even people who weren't seeking it out, were exposed to that. I assume everyone knew what 2 girls 1 cup is, and if you ask around my age right now, most people will know it from around secondary school. And at least most guys knew about the pain olympics.

Not really executions though, luckily.

Picture a two curves of technical progress. One is the process toward creating a 'hot' media stimuli so addicting that it shifts your utility function. The other is the route to interstellar travel. Now imagine the relative resources that are being expended to push technology along each curve.

an intersection of the two curves must exist, at some point

when two roads diverge in a yellowed wood, blaze down the middle

I definitely like this approach, but a big problem is how social media captivates your attention, gets you addicted, and then you’re watching whatever the algorithm wants.

At that point, it gets very, very hard to have a meaningful conversation about what the algorithm chooses to show you.

So I’m not so sure any more. It’s clearly not healthy for kids to be addicted to social media, and how do you avoid that except by restricting use of those apps?

16 is so old to be doing that still. If I were your teenager I would have hated that and would have been extremely embarrassed if my friends ever found out.

Thats basically how it worked back then too. Instead of an algorithm showing you this stuff by surprise it was your buddy in the computer lab saying “hey check this out.”