This is throwing the baby out with the bath water. The problems aren’t with mobile computing, but with social media and free-to-play games abusing the science of addiction to create psychological dependencies in users (and children are especially vulnerable to this). Even the timing of your notifications can and are used to manipulate you.
Recent news suggests that the ones who should be banned from smartphones are MPs.
Teaching kids about responsible use of smartphones and social media, and using the available parental controls, is the right way to go about making sure kids are safe.
Trying to stop kids from getting their hands on smartphones is a laughable policy idea. Social media is ubiquitous with modern day youth, they will find a way to access it one way or another.
I can’t believe that parents prefer to wait for legislation to ban smartphones instead of refusing to buy one for their offspring. I get the network effect of having all the other kids with phones but at the same time if that is the only motivation for buying one for your kid then you must not care that much about their dangers.
I think the thing I’ve seen oft repeated is that if all the other kids have phones too, by depriving your child of one, you’re essentially dooming them to being an outcast of their peers because most socialising happens via the phone.
Given the amount of parents who are happy to buy their kids alcohol and GTA videogames I wonder if the social pressure would vanish overnight.
I get the network effect of having all the other kids with phones.
I don’t think the network effect is the only factor to consider here. Kids are at real risk of social ostracization and bullying by their peers if they do not have a smartphone. And that’s dangeous in of itself.
I’m not sure if the dangers of being ostricised and bullied are more significant than the dangers presented by owning a smartphone. Either way, I don’t think it’s a simple decision for a parent to make.
Is this some ploy to drum up an excuse for losing the upcoming election?
