Campaign to control children's use of smart phones

I agree with this in principle and would like to see some meaningful way to enforce it. I think it's the apps downloaded rather than the smartphone itself that needs legislating against. A smartphone is useful for anyone. Maps helps you when you are lost. Text messages and phoning people also useful. The GPS is how we've found lots of missing children. Kindle for children is excellent for books on the go. But 13 was always preposterously young to have social media accounts.

The trouble is, the parents who CBA with saying no will just hand over their own phone to their kids like they do now. It's why so many 8 year olds are on Instagram when they shouldn't be. Or the kids will lie and construct a fake date of birth, any social media lets you do that. Or they'll start accessing it all on different devices like iPads or laptops.

What we really need across the internet is a meaningful method of age verification that simultaneously filters out underage children on the wrong apps and yet doesn't place unnecessary burdens on adults who just want to do a thing quickly and easily e.g. download a parking app at the side of the road within the 10 minutes grace before they get hit with a ticket for not paying for parking fast enough.

Also I'm not sure why NICE (guidance body for the NHS? That same NICE?) have got an opinion on children's liberties. Funny how they've got an opinion on phones but don't seem so vocal on some more important issues like the long term effects of taking unnecessary medications from an early age. 🤔