True, yesterday I tried to work in our living room and I had to repel my son like some darn fly so he’d go to bed…
At the same time, at the era of Nokia’s 3310 I don’t remember such compulsiveness…
You’re right even about the books or children stories, but there’s probably too much to unfold on a tech forum. That’s a good advice though, check if the kids feed their mind with things you approve as a parent. Showing only good may not suffice when someone shows them bad as an alternative.
Re lifting restrictions at age of 13, imagine in Poland most children get their phone when they’re 9-10 or even on their first day at school. Does anybody care about browser, or Youtube or any other 13+ social media? Nah!
The sad reality too is that the internet is mostly pornography and gore nowadays. It used to only be in dark corners of the internet and now it’s everywhere and in everything.
I was at a parent meeting to discuss smartphone use–the goal being to get the parents on the same page, ideally wait until 8th, before giving smartphones. The 4th grade teacher hoped to pre-empt issues in the classroom by making the parents aware of the potential issues that may arise (e.g. group texting after school leads to drama that comes to school and affects the whole class).
Two things–
Someone mentioned that a child is exposed to pornography on average is age 10 (I didn’t verify). A parent in the class had a story to back that up with her older child at a sleepover being exposed with a group of kids at that age with a phone they weren’t supposed to be using. The whole event traumatized the group.
Wait until 8th is a pledge parents take to wait until at least the end of 8th grade to give their child a smartphone. There is more discussion on this at our school as it has strict policy on smartphone and smart watches, all must be dropped off at the office. Anyway, my child started there at 7th grade and everyone in the class already had a smartphone though the parents had taken that pledge in the first grade. I was a bit disheartened, though I suppose that is the state of our society.
I agree this is so weird, a friend of mine was telling me about it and how, well there’s nothing you can do after 13 and as fathers I think we can’t claim to be victims, we must do something. For my part I am using apple configurator and treating the ipads at home as managed devices, but still find bugs after software updates that require a re-provisioning of the management profile. My children actually appreciate that we can now remove apps that couldn’t be removed otherwise. They use the ipads for their writting assignments and reading and that is it, they are at home and they use them in the common area only as well. As they approach driving age though I am working out a way to get them on a minimalist phone. They both liked my LP2 which I sold in order to preorder a kompakt. I also preordered an LP3 and hopefully one of them will become the standard at our household. I do think it starts by setting the example so even my own iphone and ipad is managed and they are well aware of it, and hoping I can transition to the mudita or lp3 soon.
8th grade is evidently 13-14 year olds. That is far too young to be handed unfettered access to a place where every evil is freely available. I am 40+ and still too vulnerable, hence the e-ink phone, to limit my opportunity.
And what do children lose without a smartphone? The drama, bullying, and comparison games that lead to depression or unhealthy competition? The fear stoking “news” and dopamine poisoning “entertainment”? They might even go outside instead of hunching down and craning their neck with their eyes transfixed against an artificial glare as an artificial world bombards their minds.
When I was in the 1st or 2nd grade elementary, we have created a “Mortal Kombat club” after hours… and a friend of mine brought some printed “wamp” kind of thing… I think the average is low for a long time now, but online pornography for many reasons is even worse than what we were exposed to back then…
We can lie with date of birth on those parent control apps or use other means of restriction, or not give a smartphone in the first place.
I feel you on the LP2, my son likes MK the same way.
That’s a good advice though, check if the kids feed their mind with things you approve as a parent. Showing only good may not suffice when someone shows them bad as an alternative.