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COMMENT PAGE FOR:
HTML Show HN: Stickerbox, a kid-safe, AI-powered voice to sticker printer
modelorona wrote 22 min ago:
More for the landfill I guess
venturecruelty wrote 29 min ago:
Jesus Christ, no.
pclark wrote 39 min ago:
Bummed this wonât ship until Feb!
maniacwhat wrote 1 hour 12 min ago:
When Google and OpenAI struggle to filter their own models to be age
appropriate, what makes you think you have been able to crack the
problem?
venturecruelty wrote 28 min ago:
Hubris, mostly, same as always.
cube00 wrote 1 hour 17 min ago:
It's [...] not a place where kids can wander into unknown content.
When LLMs are involved, I don't find the guardrails as hard as they are
making out.
If AI were built for kids, what would it look like?
Exactly like this and it's heartbreaking.
strongpigeon wrote 1 hour 19 min ago:
Hey so I looked at your website and you say you're KidSafe COPPA
certified, yet on their website it only mentions you as KidSafe listed?
Any reason for the discrepancy? [1] Also, do you guys have CPSC CPC
certificate? I couldn't find anything to that effect.
HTML [1]: https://www.kidsafeseal.com/certifiedproducts/stickerbox_devic...
smallerfish wrote 1 hour 25 min ago:
The biggest problem is that when this company goes out of business in 5
years that it'll become a paperweight.
I'm still bitter at Logitech for screwing up Squeezebox.
cobbzilla wrote 1 hour 46 min ago:
wow the haters are out today! Happy Holidays All!
Congratulations to Bob & Arun on the launch!
venturecruelty wrote 28 min ago:
And so are the AI shills. People are allowed to be critical of
things.
mh- wrote 56 min ago:
This post has the highest % of unflagged comments in violation of the
HN guidelines I've seen in a long time.
All the constructive/neutral comments are downvoted, too, giving them
even more visibility.
devmor wrote 1 hour 54 min ago:
Wow, a product that exists entirely to deprive children of the ability
to develop artistic creativity.
It's rare that I see a launch on HN that I could call abjectly evil,
but this is certainly it.
GaryBluto wrote 31 min ago:
How dramatic. It's a little box that lets children make stickers by
asking it, it's not "abjectly evil" in any sense.
venturecruelty wrote 21 min ago:
And asbestos just gives you a little cough. If I weren't already so
cynical, this entire thread would certainly do it. You people are
so goddamn dismissive in the most repulsive, condescending way.
nkrisc wrote 2 hours 11 min ago:
> Stickerbox is our attempt to make modern AI kid-safe, playful, and
tangible. Weâd love to hear what you think!
How is it made to be "kid-safe"?
> Our model includes strict safety filters that block inappropriate
content before it ever appears, ensuring that every creation stays fun,
imaginative, and age-appropriate.
How do you filter the output of a generative AI like this?
threetonesun wrote 1 hour 8 min ago:
Filter the input? If it's trained on all kid-friendly material and
you have guardrails on the inputs what's going to come out. I believe
Apple has done this pretty successfully on their image gen stuff that
was clearly aimed at kids. Granted the outputs are... very boring,
but they seem to never give back anything inappropriate.
SauntSolaire wrote 1 hour 58 min ago:
Cynically, my guess is it's just through the system prompt.
hesdeadjim wrote 2 hours 1 min ago:
Iâm sure they just dump the image into another LLM to gauge
âsafetyâ and pretend itâs good enough.
ghostpepper wrote 2 hours 30 min ago:
Does a human review every sticker before it's ever shown to a child? If
not, it's only a matter of time before the AI spits out something
accidentally horrific.
jackb4040 wrote 2 hours 12 min ago:
I searched their site for any information on "how" they can claim
it's safe for kids. This is what I could find: [1] > No internet open
browsing or open chat features.
> AI toys shouldnât need to go online or talk to strangers to work.
Offline AI keeps playtime private and focused on creativity.
> No recording or long-term data storage.
> If itâs recording, it should be clear and temporary. Kids deserve
creative freedom without hidden mics or mystery data trails.
> No eavesdropping or âalways-onâ listening
> Devices designed for kids should never listen all the time. AI
should wake up only when itâs invited to.
> Clear parental visibility and control.
> Parents should easily see what the toy does, no confusing settings,
no buried permissions.
> Built-in content filters and guardrails.
> AI should automatically block or reword inappropriate prompts and
make sure results stay age-appropriate and kind."
Obviously the thing users here know, and "kid-safe" product after
product has proven, is that safety filters for LLMs are generally
fake. Perhaps they can exist some day, but a breakthrough like that
isn't gonna come from an application-layer startup like this.
Trillion dollar companies have been trying and failing for years.
All the other guardrails are fine but basically pointless if your
model has any social media data in its dataset.
HTML [1]: https://stickerbox.com/blogs/all/ai-for-kids-a-parent-s-guid...
cube00 wrote 1 hour 13 min ago:
They fail their own checklist in that article.
> Hereâs a parent checklist for safe AI play:
> [...] AI toys shouldnât need to go online
From the FAQ:
> Can I use Stickerbox without Wi-Fi?
> You will need Wi-Fi or a hotspot connection to connect and
generate new stickers.
InitialBP wrote 1 hour 46 min ago:
I'm sure you are correct about being able to do some clever
prompting or tricks to get it to print inappropriate stickers, but
I believe in this case it may be OK.
If you consider a threat model where the threat is printing
inappropriate stickers, who are the threat actors? Children who are
attempting to circumvent the controls and print inappropriate
stickers? If they already know about topics that they shouldn't be
printing and are trying to get it to print, I think they probably
don't truly _Need_ the guardrails at that point.
In the same way many small businesses don't (most likely can't even
afford to) opt to put security controls in place that are only
relevant to blocking nation state attackers, this device really
only needs enough controls in place to prevent a child from
accidentally getting an inappropriate output.
It's just a toy for kids to print stickers with, and as soon as the
user is old enough to know or want to see more adult content they
can just go get it on a computer.
xnx wrote 2 hours 31 min ago:
> We wanted to let kids combine the power of their ideas with AI tools
Why? Kids can combine the power of their ideas with crayons, markers,
and pencils.
tuckerman wrote 7 min ago:
I think with the right parental guidance/supervision this could be a
very fun toy.
From the website it seems like a great way to generate some black and
white outlines that kids can still color in. If used like that it
seems almost strictly more creative than a coloring book, no? There
are plenty of other ways kids can express creativity with pre-made
art too. Maybe they use them to illustrate a story they dreamed up?
Maybe they decorate something they built with them?
Also, some children might want to have fun be creative in ways that
don't involve visual arts. I was never particularly interested in
coloring or drawing and still believe myself to be a pretty creative
individual. I don't think my parents buying me some stickers robbed
me of any critical experience.
SiempreViernes wrote 47 min ago:
Some kids might not have arms though? So this helps with that bit,
but I'm not sure what they would do with the stickers.
add-sub-mul-div wrote 1 hour 2 min ago:
Yeah. It's bad enough if kids prompting this stuff online is the new
form that creativity is going to take. But this way, it's generating
electronic crap that will end up in landfills as well.
lbrito wrote 1 hour 57 min ago:
This is the best answer.
Although cool, I can see how this product will just inhibit instead
of enabling creativity and play in kids. Instead of having to draw
something to see it, refining the drawing over minutes or hours, the
kid will just lazily ask for some half formed idea, and see it
materialize from thin air. That's just sad
_rpxpx wrote 1 hour 38 min ago:
Agree with all of that apart from "although cool".
Why is it 'cool'? It's 'cool' only in the way Elon Musk and his
retracting door handles are 'cool'.
charcircuit wrote 2 hours 3 min ago:
More options is better. I think it's possible for a niche to exist
for AI creative tools like this.
tinfoilhatter wrote 1 hour 11 min ago:
I'm struggling to find the creative part in having an AI print
stickers for a child. Seems like the entire creative part is
skipped over.
easton wrote 2 hours 35 min ago:
don't mean to steal your customers, but can I just buy good thermal
sticker paper somewhere that would work with a regular receipt printer?
That would be fun for side nonsense, with or without AI.
When I was more youthful I remember getting the avery sticker sheets
for a school election, but a roll where someone could do one at a time
would be more useful for random stuff.
starkparker wrote 58 min ago:
500 BPA/BPS-free 4"x3" thermal labels for $16 or less: [1] Any of a
variety of 4" thermal shipping label printers without AI, generally
ranging from $30 to $75: [2] Everything about this is marked up to
hell to pay for the generative AI end.
HTML [1]: https://www.amazon.com/Thermal-Labels-Shipping-Multipurpose-...
HTML [2]: https://www.amazon.com/Phomemo-Bluetooth-241BT-Wireless-Comp...
smokeydoe wrote 2 hours 48 min ago:
Looks really cool, but unfortunately I can not use it because thermal
printing paper is coated with endocrine-disrupting chemicals like
Bisphenol-A (BPA) or its substitute, Bisphenol-S (BPS), which can be
absorbed through skin contact, potentially leading to metabolic,
reproductive, or cancerous issues. Itâs basically a very fine plastic
dust. Though risk depends on exposure duration and amount, itâs not
something I would feel comfortable with kids.
HTML [1]: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5453537/
dingnuts wrote 2 hours 2 min ago:
I can't find the CPC certificate for this product. Children's toys
are heavily regulated in the US and based on the thermal paper, the
lack of display of their authorization to sell, the fly by night
nature of a drop shipping website like this ...
I don't think this is a legal product to market towards children in
the US
and that's without even mentioning the LLM usage
real glad my nibblings all got real art supplies when they were
little. that fosters real creativity and the lot of them can draw
better than any of the examples on the sales page, and they're still
little kids. and there's no subscription, no EULA, their supplies are
legal and safe to use, etc.
This product is actual trash
loloquwowndueo wrote 2 hours 26 min ago:
Did you miss the part where they explicitly said they did â
sourcing safe BPA/BPS free thermal paperâ ?
turkeyboi wrote 2 hours 27 min ago:
Page claims âNo-BPA and no-BPS printing paperâ
gingericha wrote 2 hours 27 min ago:
The site claims to have BPA and BPS free printing paper
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