[revskill]

Stupid parenting is what causes current issue. Yes, they're too busy to take care of their children, so let's just give them a phone and done, you're free!

If all parents forbid their children to touch the phone, problem solved.

[bonniemuffin]

I don't think keeping phones away from kids is enough to solve smartphone addiction. There are lots of smartphone addicts who were already adults before smartphones were invented-- I was well into my 20s when the iphone was invented, so I definitely wasn't using it as a kid, yet I don't think I have a healthy relationship with the technology.

I also don't think it's particularly helpful to blame individual parents (most of whom are doing the best they can at a very difficult job!) for what is ultimately a social issue that all of us contribute to.

[dredmorbius]

Boomers, few of whom are presently toddlers, pre-teens, or even adolescents, seem as prone to screen-addiction as any other age group.

This is unlikely a result of bad parenting brought about by an extant technological environment in their own youth:

"Baby boomers can’t stop staring at their phones" November 12, 2022

But there is another demographic that is struggling with putting down their devices: Baby boomers. Smartphones came into their lives late, but they were quickly won over. Now some of their children say they are hooked, staring at their screens constantly, even when they should be paying attention to their own grandchildren. Two-thirds of boomers own a smartphone and about 6 in 10 are on social media, according to a 2019 Pew Research Center survey.

<https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/12/boomers...>

Archive/paywall: <https://archive.ph/Tz5Lj>

The Pew study on which that article is based: <https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/09/09/us-generati...>

[leetbulb]

How else are parents going to have time to tend their virtual farms?

Edit: Yeah go ahead, down vote, but this is intended to be a humorous take on a systemic problem, as other have mentioned.