[dahart]

Not to distract from the good point made above that the kid is smart by arguing about the syntax of words of the article, but what makes you certain he didn’t actually put words what his mother implied he said?

The article is not explicit on this point, it does not claim she interpreted them, the article says: “As I learned on his birthday, my son had decided three things about smartphones.“ That wording does imply they may have had a conversation, on his birthday, which is now being summarized. That implication is reinforced with “(He was onto something there)” because it implies he stated an objection to being monitored.