DO NOT give your kid a smartphone this Christmas

[Firey40]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDd86TftyNT/?igsh=MTZueGVicm1udDllNw==

The evidence is overwhelming.

Their brains are only young once.

We might not have known before….. but we know now.

STOP GIVING KIDS SMARTPHONES

I got a mobile at 8 year old (not smart as they didn't exist in the 90s), I probably use my smart phone less than anyone I know, its never been more than a tool to me... hate the damn thing really.

My DS got his smart phone at 8 too, 8 years ago... he is also completely uninterested in phones, he forgets it even exists most the time.

Phones are a safety device and smart phones are just phones with the internet. Internet used on multiple devices as part of a rounded education.

You are posting on the same internet, from a device, to a completely unnecessary social forum. So you CLEARLY aren't anti screens, anti technology, anti internet so your just hypocritical and weird. People said all this shit about computers, laptops, the internet etc... yet here you are being like everyone else.

Nailed it 🤣

@Stompythedinosaur I don't know about employment but the mental health stats for kids are not great.

And the police ask if you have any way of tracing them. A police force recently put out a statement suggesting that all parents of teenagers should have tracking apps installed on their kids phones. I'm sorry, I can't find the article, it was maybe a month ago.

I think it was in part a response to the teenagers involved on the Southport riots and parents being responsible even if they weren't there. It was an interesting perspective.

Nail on the head.

When bus passes, school meals, etc are on apps, the ship has long since sailed.

Add into that, schools who've embraced homework apps, encouraging phone camera use in science experiments, even setting classwork based on apps and online research/online quizzes in lessons themselves! I've even heard of a local school who now do their register and lesson attendance monitoring via apps on pupil's phones!

The genie is out of the bottle. Like with banking apps, car park apps, etc. The future is a World controlled and managed by Apps. We need to wake up and smell the coffee to how the World is today and how it will look in 5 years time!

As you rightly say, it's up to parents to actually parent, control what their kids are doing, set parental controls on their devices, talk to them, monitor them, nurture them, etc. Parents have to take responsibility!

@housethatbuiltme nah, not all those things have an equally negative impact on children. But I think your "rounded education" is bullshit and we are using tech too much.

Why don't you watch the 2 hours or so of recent programming on channel 4.

Why are so many parents so defensive of smart phones? We all know they're bad

Non smartphones do the same thing

Surely it's less about the physical smart phones and the unfettered access to the internet and social media. My children are still too young for smart phones being only 6 and 8, but will most likely get one around the age of 11 when they will be out with friends, walking home from school alone and much more independent. That doesn't mean that they will be allowed access to SM or be allowed there phones 24/7. There will be restrictions on phone usage but it'll be invaluable for keeping in touch with them, a tracking app for safety - and for them to message friends as they get older.

I do think that parents should be more aware of what their kids are watching on YouTube or viewing on social media though.

I teach 18-21 year olds. An increasing number of them are too anxious to attend classes face to face and cannot cope with direct questions even if they do come to class. Assessments like presentations are out of the question because of the anxiety it causes such a huge number of them (we’re talking a third of the cohort). Time keeping is very poor as is taking initiative. Study skills are shocking for a high ranking institution. So I would say that we already have a generation who will at least struggle in employment. My DP works in an industry that takes on a lot of grads and he would back it up - he has some real horror stories including people who have been unable to work due to being up all night gaming.
Doing well at school means little when school involves teaching little to no resilience, pandering to every single discomfort someone has and spoon feeding all information to them.

We have had a global financial crisis, austerity, recession, pandemic, wars breaking out in previously peaceful countries, wildfires, riots, the list goes on and on.

I'm not sure access to information is the issue so much as the information that they have access to is really scary.

The question shouldn't be "how do we limit teenagers access to the world" it should be "how do we support teenagers to navigate the world that they are a part of".

@taxguru yep and some of us parent by realising that is too hard for our kids (maybe not all kids, but mine) to self-limit on these devices so we don't have them.

I meant tracking. Predictive text changed what I wrote 🙄. No, no ipad, only a work one, which we can use for personal use. Maybe Samsung will bring something similar out.

Presumably op is an adult?

We're talking about smart phones for children.

smart phones can be used in a negative way or positive way, its up to the parent to set boundaries

Parents can set boundaries… what they don’t know about phone usage is what they need to be concerned about.

2 of my DC are young adults and 2 older teens so that ship has sailed but both my young adults, whilst seemingly well adjusted and successful, tell me that they wish they hadn’t had phones at 12 and that it was too young to access SM and the like.

I’m quite sure they have both seen things they wish they hadn’t, despite the use of parental controls etc.

@WasThatACorner the effect the actual device has on their brains is significant though. I'm not limiting my kid's access to the world. I just don't think a smartphone is a significant part of the world or a healthy way for my kid to experience it. Bet the social media moderators from Kenya in the news would agree with me.

Helping kids navigate the world they're part of - yep, I'd say making their experience of it less virtual as a huge part of that.

Oh, give over. Why don't you forego giving your own child a mobile phone and let parents make their own assessment for their own child? I hate these bloody virtuous shout out requests.

100% agree with this.

It's incredibly boring being the mum who watches kids youtube and plays roblox but it is necessary. Screentime doesn't have to mean locked away in a corner on their own, it can be another way to relate to your child.

My children are 11 & 9 and they both have a smartphone as they go to school together or the 11 yo goes by himself if the 9 yo does not go for whatever reason. They are both very sensible and don't have social media, although some of their friends do. They do have Whatsapp to contact family members and they have YouTube and Roblox (they can only request/accept requests from their friends). I check their phones regularly and I have had several talks with them explaining why I don't want them having social media and the dangers of people online, and they understand.

That's ok... my kids aren't the ones being left behind for my misplaced sense of hypocritical morals.

@WasThatACorner

The thing is, you can not get your child a smartphone and they still be exposed to all the same things because other kids have smartphones.

Exactly this. Cigarette sales to children are illegal, but children still smoke (same with alcohol, drugs etc). I remember in the 70s, there was no internet obviously, but porno magazines were still circulating widely in school - brought in by someone with an older sibling who'd legally bought them, but then either borrowed or stolen by the younger sibling to bring into school and pass around! Likewise all the smoking going on in the toilets and behind the bike sheds at break times - teachers clearly knew but chose not to do anything about it!

With smartphones, if the younger sibling doesn't have one, you get bet your bottom dollar an older sibling will let them use theirs, or they'll view things on their friends' phones etc.

Prohibition doesn't work. It's got to be ALL about education and proper parental supervision and control, open communication with children so that they can talk to their parents about anything that's bothering them.

I agree. Smartphones are completely different because they take them everywhere and always have their noses in them. So many young people are experiencing the real world, and real world interactions, less and less, while they experience everything through a tiny screen.
Then there's the impact of social media and how children are influenced by what they see.

The irony of citing Instagram as a source for the OP is wonderful. Thank you OP 🤣