LoL your asking the addicted to not make their kids addicted. Good luck!
UK: Almost a quarter of kids aged 5-7 have smartphones
Submitted 6 months ago by boem@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-68838029
Comments
Fiivemacs@lemmy.ca 6 months ago
stonerboner@lemmynsfw.com 6 months ago
It’s much easier to give your kid your old phone and pay $10 a month for a kids’ account than to deal with your kid constantly wanting to use your phone.
gaylord_fartmaster@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Being a good parent isn’t doing whatever’s easiest to distract your kid.
stonerboner@lemmynsfw.com 6 months ago
When they are at the point of going to sleepovers, play dates at friends, camp, etc it also makes a lot of sense to give them a lifeline.
The kids line I pay for gives me all the parental controls I could dream of and control over her contacts. I am 100% present, but I’m not dumb enough to send me kid out into the world without a lifeline.
It seems being needlessly judgmental is the easiest of all.
tim-clark@kbin.social 6 months ago
For sure, its easier than being present as a parent
stonerboner@lemmynsfw.com 6 months ago
When they are at the point of going to sleepovers, play dates at friends, camp, etc it also makes a lot of sense to give them a lifeline.
The kids line I pay for gives me all the parental controls I could dream of and control over her contacts. I am 100% present, but I’m not dumb enough to send me kid out into the world without a lifeline.
It seems being needlessly judgmental is the easiest of all.
TheRaven@lemmy.ca 6 months ago
It’s also easier to give them all the candy they can eat, than to deal with your kid constantly wanting candy. Doesn’t make it healthy.
EnderMB@lemmy.world 6 months ago
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.
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.
Muffi@programming.dev 6 months ago
The worst thing about this in my opinion, is that this is mostly a problem for the children from less resourceful families. There is already a tendency for children from lower socioeconomic households to have more problems with concentration. Adding smartphones will only exacerbate the problem and fuel the fires of growing inequality.
ahah@lemmy.world 6 months ago
this. the concern maybe not at the smartphone, but, quoting inaccurately from Amartya Sen, have the freedom to choose and to become, respectfully to others
erwan@lemmy.ml 6 months ago
The problem is those family sets the standard for everyone.
In middle school it started from poor family who can’t afford other activities than handing down their old smartphone, then the percentage grew to the point not giving a smartphone to your kid means he’s isolated from the group.
datendefekt@lemmy.ml 6 months ago
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.
Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 6 months ago
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.
PlainSimpleGarak@lemm.ee 6 months ago
Alternate headline: a quarter of UK parents are lazy and borderline absentee.
desktop_user@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 months ago
how else are children supposed to communicate with friends other than at school?
richieadler@lemmy.myserv.one 6 months ago
They aren’t.
Sanctus@lemmy.world 6 months ago
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.
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
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.
qooqie@lemmy.world 6 months ago
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.
Sanctus@lemmy.world 6 months ago
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.
thr0w4w4y2@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
I’d love a small box with a button that literally just calls my phone and nothing else, no screen, no software, no proprietary lock-in. just a button.
Num10ck@lemmy.world 6 months ago
i think an apple watch eould be great for that use case.
surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Why would you not fetter the Internet access?