Comment on 'Nothing' done to address gaps created by teen social media ban, says children's commissioner
vas@lemmy.ml 3 days agoYeah, I didn’t think about it, but your comment makes sense to me. I don’t know what’s best really.
Like in a discussion here on Lemmy that was just a little while ago, I think phone usage during school hours would be a far healthier and effective alternative. I’ve seen how it works in practice in 2 different countries, one with mobile phones allowed and one disallowed. And the complete ban on phone usage during school hours really goes easy and works well (as I see implemented in Dutch schools at least - you just hand over your device in the morning until end of school).
You can also go back to having a family computer in a common room, install parental controls, give kids a dumb phone if they absolutely need one, and teach them to use phone boxes in an emergency.
But this is too good a chance to suck up more sensitive data and engage in more surveillance.
I think both 0 screen time and infinite screen time are bad extremes for kids. Infinite probably doesn’t need explaining, zero is also not very effective because you’re likely gonna alienate the kid and they’ll be playing at friend’s houses anyway.
Personally I think the best approach is to try be a guide for your kid, not a policement. Soon enough they’ll be on their own anyway, and the reasons will stick better than the rules.
Agreed. It wouldn’t be 0 screen time, it would involve moderated screen time and yes guiding and teaching the kid.
They’re still going to get into things they shouldn’t but this way would handle it better than these sweeping changes (which they’ll get around as well or go to more dangerous sites).
Unfortunately outside interests are involved so I think this isn’t completely about protecting the children :/
Tau@aussie.zone 3 days ago
Over the last few years I think all our states have now banned phones from being visible in school, so there’s efforts towards reducing usage at least within school. That’s a relatively recent move though and does only cut down on usage during part of the day so I don’t know if there’s been a noticeable effect on the kids.