> The hard-hitting report said children needed to be protected from the tech industry’s profit-driven “strategy of capturing children’s attention, using all forms of cognitive bias to shut children away on their screens, control them, re-engage them and monetise them”.
It’s interesting that they aren’t saying it’s tech-use that’s dangerous.
They are just outright saying the companies themselves are manipulative and predatory.
Bog-Star on
I like the idea of manufacturers issuing smart phones specifically made for children. It would be easy to do as they would be the same phones they would just have restricted access to the internet and social media and a curated app store.
They could even charge on the back end by allowing a parent or a child who has reached 18 to unlock the rest of the phone for a fee.
drwho_2u on
Give them old school flip phones until they are old enough to handle smart phones!!!
Spacelord_Moses on
Yep, actually smart phones destroy or activly block your kids development on so many levels when beeing used for so much and for no reason but to keep your kids quiet. Do your kid a favor and give strict rules for usage. Its messing with their brains (not like we adults would do much better lol)
grumble11 on
Modern smartphones aren’t like the screens of old. It is always with you and algorithm ethnically optimized to maximize engagement, and engagement is maximally engaged when you’re hopped up on dopamine. That means using a modern smartphone is hyper-rewarding and frankly it makes real life incredibly boring by comparison. This gives people shot attention spans, screen addictions and developmental delays due to not doing stuff that develops you in favour of screens instead.
wrongbutnotuncertain on
I wouldn’t let any of my kids have phones until high school. The hardest part was that “everybody else has one”, making them feel like freaks at their middle school. They know I was right to do it, but the peer pressure aspect is rough.
MorallyComplicated on
Mind your own business, actually. I’m not asking, either.
xX_420DemonLord69_Xx on
I was watching a James Charles video and he had the 5-year-old kid of a friend in the video.
He panned to the backseat of his car, the kid sitting on a booster-seat, and the boy was so engrossed in the smartphone that he was incomprehensibly responding to questions from his mom in murmurs.
The kid seemed developmentally behind and I don’t doubt the fixation on the phone played a role.
Seems wild that *toddlers* have unsupervised access to the internet.
Xtanto on
I gave my kids feature phones. they have only the ability to call and text and also cost 20 if lost or broken
hellions123 on
Then give them a phone and overload them with social media and the internet.
Genius
reganomics on
But how will modern parents get their children to stop bothering them in any and all situations. /s
TeachingSenior9312 on
Solution is not to ban social Media but ban their business Modell. No more advertisment, just payed subscription for your social network account.
dollydrew on
Nay 16 or 17. 13 is still too young to expose them to social media.
GroinShotz on
Old people get addicted too… I’ve known a few folks blowing their savings on shit like Candy Crush.
BUFF_BRUCER on
I’m so glad i got to experience life before smartphones and social media took over where people could live in the present and not be subject to all the anxiety inducing judgements and flaunting and bad news that social media brings
Must be hard for parents with young children who feel obliged to give their children smartphones just because all their friends have one
im_just_thinking on
5 year olds in VR lobbies: hold my juicebox
JTKDO on
I’m Gen Z grew up on the internet for as long as I can remember. The rise of the smartphone coincided with me becoming a teenager, and I got my first one at 13.
Even though I was technologically literate and understood how to navigate the internet by that age, I can’t imagine having a smartphone at 10 or younger specifically because of how much I use social media.
Fun games, websites, and YouTube were more than enough for me age 7-12.
itsl8erthanyouthink on
The moment your child gets a smartphone their childhood has ended. You get to choose when it happens but the result is the same.
18 Comments
> The hard-hitting report said children needed to be protected from the tech industry’s profit-driven “strategy of capturing children’s attention, using all forms of cognitive bias to shut children away on their screens, control them, re-engage them and monetise them”.
It’s interesting that they aren’t saying it’s tech-use that’s dangerous.
They are just outright saying the companies themselves are manipulative and predatory.
I like the idea of manufacturers issuing smart phones specifically made for children. It would be easy to do as they would be the same phones they would just have restricted access to the internet and social media and a curated app store.
They could even charge on the back end by allowing a parent or a child who has reached 18 to unlock the rest of the phone for a fee.
Give them old school flip phones until they are old enough to handle smart phones!!!
Yep, actually smart phones destroy or activly block your kids development on so many levels when beeing used for so much and for no reason but to keep your kids quiet. Do your kid a favor and give strict rules for usage. Its messing with their brains (not like we adults would do much better lol)
Modern smartphones aren’t like the screens of old. It is always with you and algorithm ethnically optimized to maximize engagement, and engagement is maximally engaged when you’re hopped up on dopamine. That means using a modern smartphone is hyper-rewarding and frankly it makes real life incredibly boring by comparison. This gives people shot attention spans, screen addictions and developmental delays due to not doing stuff that develops you in favour of screens instead.
I wouldn’t let any of my kids have phones until high school. The hardest part was that “everybody else has one”, making them feel like freaks at their middle school. They know I was right to do it, but the peer pressure aspect is rough.
Mind your own business, actually. I’m not asking, either.
I was watching a James Charles video and he had the 5-year-old kid of a friend in the video.
He panned to the backseat of his car, the kid sitting on a booster-seat, and the boy was so engrossed in the smartphone that he was incomprehensibly responding to questions from his mom in murmurs.
The kid seemed developmentally behind and I don’t doubt the fixation on the phone played a role.
Seems wild that *toddlers* have unsupervised access to the internet.
I gave my kids feature phones. they have only the ability to call and text and also cost 20 if lost or broken
Then give them a phone and overload them with social media and the internet.
Genius
But how will modern parents get their children to stop bothering them in any and all situations. /s
Solution is not to ban social Media but ban their business Modell. No more advertisment, just payed subscription for your social network account.
Nay 16 or 17. 13 is still too young to expose them to social media.
Old people get addicted too… I’ve known a few folks blowing their savings on shit like Candy Crush.
I’m so glad i got to experience life before smartphones and social media took over where people could live in the present and not be subject to all the anxiety inducing judgements and flaunting and bad news that social media brings
Must be hard for parents with young children who feel obliged to give their children smartphones just because all their friends have one
5 year olds in VR lobbies: hold my juicebox
I’m Gen Z grew up on the internet for as long as I can remember. The rise of the smartphone coincided with me becoming a teenager, and I got my first one at 13.
Even though I was technologically literate and understood how to navigate the internet by that age, I can’t imagine having a smartphone at 10 or younger specifically because of how much I use social media.
Fun games, websites, and YouTube were more than enough for me age 7-12.
The moment your child gets a smartphone their childhood has ended. You get to choose when it happens but the result is the same.