People really handing their kids devices that have cellular service and unfettered internet access? All my kids devices have 2 layers of adblock, parental controls, and no cell service.
Ok. Or you could, you know, not give them these. Some pretty good data coming out on why this isn’t a great idea. It’s not just luddite ranting.
Yup. I let my kids (7 and 10) play video games or watch approved shows and that’s about it. They get 1 hour on Saturdays, and they can “earn” more any day by reading: 1 hour reading = 30 min “screen time.” We have a max of 2 hours/day, but they can bank time day to day.
It works pretty well. They definitely abuse the system by going beyond their allotted time, but if I “find out,” they lose privileges for a couple days, so it seems they stay pretty honest on average without a ton of oversight.
I don’t have any parental controls/blocking except for:
- ad blocker - screw ads
- passcode on Switch - mostly because of my 4yo, my older kids know the code
Basically, I operate on trust and honesty, and I think it works okay.
I’ll probably get my kids a dumb phone for school when they get old enough. I want them to have cell service for emergencies of any kind.
I thought about that but I myself am broke and have gotten all of these from relatives that no longer use them. If I could go back in time, I would have abstained and ripped our N64 from my brother’s closet sooner.
I’d love a small box with a button that literally just calls my phone, has a mic and speaker and nothing else, no screen, no software, no proprietary lock-in. just a button.
i think an apple watch eould be great for that use case.
Why would you not fetter the Internet access?
LoL your asking the addicted to not make their kids addicted. Good luck!
I went to look around a nursery the other day, one that is attached to a school. We walked past kids that couldn’t have been older than 6-7 dancing (possibly filming) to a TikTok vid, on a brand-new looking iPhone.
I’m usually against governments getting involved in the internet, since they have such a piss-poor understanding of tech, but it would be good to see some kind of regulation that bans people of a certain age from operating a smartphone without a limited set of operations (i.e. to contact parents, to get school alerts, etc), alongside school bans for the use of social media on school grounds. My wife is a teacher, and cyber bullying is rampant, whether it’s the police getting called in over someone (underage) sending nudes and having them posted online once they break up, or fights being planned via iMessage or WhatsApp, and sometimes even people creating fake Tinder/Grindr profiles of their teachers (or to try to match with them).
Obviously, there are parents that’ll just say “fuck it, it keeps them quiet” or ones that’ll let them use a smartphone due to peer pressure, but a lot of it can be cut down before it becomes a problem.
In many ways, I’m quite glad I grew up with AIM and MSN Messenger. This kind of online power would have been crazy to me as a kid, and I don’t envy kids that have to deal with this landscape.
Alternate headline: a quarter of UK parents are lazy and borderline absentee.
I think it’s fine for kids to have a phone as long as the parents properly limit their use
Is the sort of parent who gives a 5 year old their own phone going really going to a limit the use? I think the crossover in that Venn diagram is pretty small.
It is not hard. Just have a family app and you can set an allowance of total and for each app. Takes like 10 minutes to set up.
I know, but my point is that sort of parent has no desire to do so.
Either do I. But it’s better to know what’s going on and putting in the work. Your kids only benefit from it.
good point
Beyond the proven addictive effects of handing a dopamine device to your kid, there are legal ramifications many parents aren’t aware of.
WhatsApp and TikTok aren’t just there like air, free for all to consume. They are service providers and both sides are bound by a contract, the EULA. IIRC, WhatsApp recently reduced it minimum age from 16 to 12. So if you install WhatsApp on your 8 year old’s phone, you have broken the contract.
The only ramification being that they close the account if they find out. No one is getting arrested, getting a fine, or even going to court.
Made that mistake once. No more.
Post-birth abortion?
They don’t let you out of the room if you do that one. Plus the annoying little buggers are cute. And then there’s the inevitable… you’re fucking getting old. In your 20s you tend to be pretty stupid and learn from that. In your 30s your at the top of your game. I’m your 40s you realize how valuable time is and that you’re running out of it. I assume there’s some more wisdom to be had between here and 6 feet under. Actually I’m choosing cremation. I want to be a vanilla creme. Why don’t they just call it burning of the bodies? They gotta call it cremation because it sounds like ice cream like that. But yeah, when you die you don’t take anything with you. So without kids to sell your shit and ruin everything, what’s the point? Right?
🤦♂️
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Sounds like you would be a horrible parent. The last thing kids need is their father to snoop around in their web traffic and erode any kind of privacy. Children are still humans, and you should respect them as such.
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