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    Build child-safe smartphones rather than impose school bans, experts urge
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    Build child-safe smartphones rather than impose school bans, experts urge

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    29 Comments

    2. No-Tension4175 on

      Hard disagree. We should absolutely treat cell phones like cigarettes and go so far as to ban children under the age of 18 from owning them outside of school–I am talking like fines for parents who let their kids have smart phones. This is my most authoritarian political belief, but I am also 100% convinced that allowing kids to have smart phones is doing a huge amount of damage to society.

    3. Wide_Tune_8106 on

      Why is every government we have had during my lifetime so obsessed with banning things?

    5. Excellent-Leg-7658 on

      It’s not the hardware that’s the issue.

      The issue is that the social media companies design their apps to be as addictive as possible, because they make their money out of ensuring children are too addicted to look away. It’s not a bug, it’s a core feature.

    7. ColdShadowKaz on

      Whats going to happen is kids phones and adults phones but the adults phones don’t have accessibility features so disabled adults have to keep using kids phones and some adults will be forced to keep using kids phones or all phones will be kids phones and we have no more adult milestones but ‘go get a job also you can get married but you’ll never have the cash to.’

    8. QuoteNation on

      There’s no such thing. Teens will. ypass this by installing custom roms or bypass other ways. Kids are not stupid and are very technically advanced in smartphones and ways to bypass things… hell, I used to bypass the naughty photo thing when I was 12 in highschool by using clever words… you think kids aren’t more advanced now?

    9. much_good on

      It should go beyond this tbh.

      Specifically start looking to ban certain technology like the infinite scroll because of how it hijacks dopamine loops, this stuff is absolutely not worth it and detrimental to everyone.

      There are plenty of people in tech who understand, often built this tech 10 years ago now saying it’s absolutely fucked and shouldn’t be implemented so universally.

    10. JayR_97 on

      This a parenting issue

      If a smart phone is having a negative affect on the kids behaviour, it’s up to the parents to deal with it

      Stop expecting the government to parent your kids

    11. GL510EX on

      >Smartphones should be treated like cars not cigarettes

      Exactly. 

      Cars and cigarettes are both banned in schools, and under 17s aren’t allowed to use either. 

      If they wanted to ban them, they don’t need a new law,  they already have a mechanism to require them to be banned.  They just need to get Ofsted to make ‘effective ban on smartphone use’ a required safeguarding element, and the headteachers will find a way to make it happen over night.

    13. Broccoli--Enthusiast on

      What do you mean build…they already are, parents are just too lazy to learn

    15. Marble-Boy on

      I remember the campaign to make the internet a safer place for kids… what happened to that?

    16. TheFinalPieceOfPie on

      Wait… wait wait, so then what was the point in the online safety bill??? No seriously, what was the point?

    17. JesseKansas on

      Don’t give kids phones til they need one (walking home alone from school, etc), although give kids access to a family PC in a public supervised space + run thru the child safety stuff with them, watch a couple episodes of TCAP or something just to really hammer the point home, but it’s a losing battle. By stats, kids are accessing porn at significantly younger ages, and even back in circa 2014 like 8yo kids were obsessed with FNAF and it’s gotten worse.

    18. TheNickedKnockwurst on

      Text, phone, good camera, national app whitelist with things like teams, WhatsApp, Spotify, Strava etc

    19. Affectionate-Boot-12 on

      If only parents took an interest in what their children were viewing instead of just leaving them to view vile brain rot.

    20. techdeckwarrior on

      Or or or or orrrrrrr parents do their fucking job and make sure their kids are safe online

    21. Better_Ad898 on

      any solution that doesnt involve google, meta and reddit being made to clean up and actually deal with illegal content, misinformation and hate speech will fail.

      everything else has turned out to either be too hamfisted or doesnt go far enough.

    22. Mongolian_Hamster on

      It’s insane smart phones are allowed in schools at all. Plenty of dumb phone options around for emergencies if needed.

      Why do kids need everything else at school?

    23. ConfusedQuarks on

      No matter what you do, as long as the parents aren’t doing their job, it’s not going to work. 

    24. AdmiralMaximus on

      Old people shouldn’t be anywhere near this debate. They have no idea about the root issues, and if they did, no interest in solving them. This is just another excuse for old people to blame everything on technology.

      99% of kids aren’t affected in any significant negative way by smartphones, only positive. Yet again, 1% of people ruin it for everyone.

    25. JoseJalapenoOnStick on

      If only there was a type of phone that could be brought that isn’t a smart phone that is nearly indestructible and dose not need internet.

    26. MrEManFTW on

      Don’t need the government to bring in more laws. Be a god damn good parent. Neither of my kids are allowed smart phones. They have dumb phones that can text and call. They are banned from social media until they are adults. Home network has security features to stop the sneaky bastards bypassing the content filters. The internet is very very bad for kids, teach them how to tell fake news and grifters, also fact checking using reliable sources.

      Teach them how to look after money and the perils of debt. How APR works and how to cook and clean. The amount of kids I see that couldn’t pay a bill or cook food is astounding.

    27. Existing_Goal_7667 on

      Family link is amazing. We have it on all the kids devices. Once they get past 13 they have a choice, they can pay for their phone themselves or I continue to pay, with family link installed. This should come as automatic for all phones intended for children.

    28. Sir_Henry_Deadman on

      Or you know, actually understand the technology you give your child and how to monitor and control it?

      Take responsibility for the thing you spawned

    29. pCaK3s on

      I can guarantee that teens know how to use smart phones better than most parents.

      Parents just need to take accountability and actually parent.