My family doesn’t get smartphones until age 12. That seems to work well
I’m probably going to make it a rule that my kids don’t get them until 15. I’m 28 and have definitely been ruined by smartphones. My attention span is shit and motivation is hard to maintain when the internet is just right there.
I wish there was a device that only did the bare minimum of email, phone, texting, navigation, and music.
Those exist, there are a few products intended to provide that minimalist experience.
No, children deserve to be able to fact check their parent’s biased narrative, too.
It’s a conservative mindset to demand you get to monopolize the information your child receives until they’re 18.
Many children are being radicalised by online content, like the criminal Andrew Tate becoming popular among teenagers.
Most people aren’t fact checking anything online. They are far more likely to start believing conspiracy theories or outright false narratives.
There’s no cure all solution. I consider homeschooled children taught to live their lives by regressive religious texts to be just as broken as the cult of Tate.
If any intervention will still yield roughly equivalent mixed results, I always err on the side of more access to information. A child can gravitate to Andrew Tate’s toxicity, or they can look up facts about the confederacy their parents told them fought for “states rights and freedumb!”
In a perfect world, loving parents should be available to provide opinions and context, but I’d rather that child have the opportunity to seek out a rational, benevolent path if the parents attempt to indoctrinate them to their worldview with no other options.
The parents most interested in dominating all information their child receives tend to be the same ones that get mad at the schools for teaching children that genitals exist, the universe is billions of years old, and their country wasn’t always perfect, stuff they need to know for life whether their parents like it or not.
you seem to be assuming that children have the same logical reasoning faculties that adults do. this is not the case.
i agree that parents should not have a monopoly over the information that their children get, but i think that well-educated school teachers are a better solution to this than the internet. (although this would require the US to put some kind of emphasis on improving its education system, so it’s probably unlikely)
you seem to be assuming that children have the same logical reasoning faculties that adults do. this is not the case.
Critical thinking and reasoning must be taught, and in the US largely doesn’t until the college level unfortunately. Many adults, many parents have no logical reasoning faculties and never will. Some are very proud of this, declaring the whims and opinions that pop into their heads “common sense.” I refer you to my fellow Americans who see salvation in a slumlord game show host nepo baby. There’s a reason humanity spent 180+ thousand years wandering in the dirt before stumbling upon a less brutal way to live 10-20 thousand years ago.
Again, some like myself may seek out such information if they are starved of it at home, if they have access. If anything, getting multiple conflicting opinions tends to make a new mind seek out ways to parse the true from the false, and that chance is better than no chance at all.
Thats how parenting works. Kids dont fact check, they dont know how to. Everyone has a biased narritive and will pass it off to their kids, thats not an issue.
Parents are concerned that providing their children with a smartphone will open them up to predators, online bullying, social pressure and harmful content.
These same parents will also just shove a smartphone or a tablet in front of their kids faces to shut them up for a while.
You dont need a law for this. If you dont want your kid to use or have a smartphone then dont buy them one.
You shouldn’t need a law, but the reality is that you simply can not control it. Your kid will interact with other kids and most will have access to a smart phone.
There absolutely needs to be a law of some kind
How about we create some data and privacy laws that benefit everyone and this will benefit now and for their whole life.
Yeah, that would be nice too, but do you honestly see that happening either? I don’t. And for that Matter: there are more problems with children having unlimited access to media through irresponsible parents than just data and privacy not being respected.
Yes they may be able to see a smart phone at school or a friend’s house but if they don’t own one then for the majority of the day they will not be using one. Or God forbid you (the royal you not you specifically) actually try parent your kids and teach them about internet safety.
Should we remove gambling and drug access restrictions for youths? After all, parents can just parent around it.
Like all things, there’s moderation to consider. It’s fine to debate if this is too far, but to simple blame parents for being lazy or unwilling to parent is short sided.
Ahh, yes, because smartphones are the same as cigarettes, alcohol and gambling. Btw if you think kids aren’t already gambling, you are wrong.
I wonder when the last time smartphones gave someone cancer or liver psoriasis.
You can give your kids smartphones and put tons of blocks and restrictions on them. Ya the kids will get around that at some point but that’s the nature of being a kid.
Why are you all so fucking aggressive? How fuck it’s annoying me to the point to not even wanting to participate at all. How about some civility? Can you imagine how a nice discussion there could be? Ffs
I know I can limit what my child might see on their phone, but there are other children and other phones and you just can’t regulate like you want to.
Internet safety would be one concern but not all. It’s not that simple like you make it out to be.
So should we keep kids in theor rooms all day long every day so we can “protect” them 24/7?
And how am I being aggressive when you are the one swearing and the one who wants to pass needless laws?
Yeah, well, sorry. I was annoyed by people being unreasonable and either jumping to conclusions or not really interested in a constructive discussion. What’s the point in trying to have a discussion if there is nobody really trying?
I’ll just leave it at that.
Totally understand where you are coming from and sorry if I made it seem like I was not up for a discussion about this. I definitely enjoy hearing differing opinions on stuff like this.
The question then would be if it might cause other problems. A lot of places are moving to e-learning, for example, and might expect the students to have internet access of some form or other.
Whether that be in the form of smartphone apps/websites, or through a laptop that the school provides, at which point, it’s basically the same thing, especially if peer pressure puts them on social media or some such.
As I said in another comment if the parents are the ones to buy it then they can put heavy parental controls on the phones or tablets.
I use a work provided cellphone while I’m on my job site and they have that fucker so locked down I can’t even change the auto lock timing so I know you can lock tons of things with passwords on phones and tablets.
Idk anything about school laptops because I’m apparently old as fuck now and that wasn’t a thing when I was younger. But I would assume that they also use software to lock those down.
The school I work at is implementing this starting next week.
Except it’s a music school so they can use metronome apps. Also, they can use it to send emails to the copy room to print music sheets. Or to use in class when it’s required. Or for whatever exception they can think of. And they actually expect us to enforce it with all these exceptions.
Yeah, I’m sure it will work /s
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Sounds like typical flag-shaggers, yearning for “the good old days” when there were four channels, you played in the road because the Tories took the playgrounds, etc - so they want to force it on their kids instead of accepting that the world has changed.
The NHS is on fire and brits are wasting time on this shit?
Truly we are a divided and conquered species.
Typical knife kill people - knife bad - ban knife nonsense
Truly some of the legislation of all time
This will definitely work.
Buy em a rzr flip like the olden days, better yet just get them a rape whistle
The post in February triggered a tidal wave of reaction from parents similarly gripped by anxiety about providing their children with a device they fear will open them up to predators, online bullying, social pressure and harmful content.
Can you imagine having to teach your kids about these risks, help them to deal with them and prepare them for adulthood?
That would be so much work.
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no matter what you tell your kid, if left unrestricted they will end up on some bad places. Its just a fact
