[ahoya]

That’s the point. you want them to miss out. Missing out means they don’t have to be depressed and have their attention spans attacked. This online social life is unhealthy and bad for them and they will grow up retarded socially if you don’t protect them from it.

[noobermin]

Socially stunting your children in order to "save them" is the height of helicopter parental abuse.

[sibeliuss]

Saving them from TikTok crack is hardly helicopter child abuse. It's responsible parenting. But it's also more than that. Simply not giving them a smartphone when they're 10 isn't enough. Parents have to also embody what they preach.

[noobermin]

There is a range here, I'm not talking about 10 year olds or 5 year olds. The article discusses young teenagers, and by that point many of their friends will be on social media, and keeping them off it will stunt their social growth and make them outcasts.

[bart_spoon]

I would strongly contest the idea that depriving a child of social media is “socially stunting” them. It isn’t as if children today are more socially adept after social media than children were for all of the millennia prior to social media, and if anything, there is evidence to the contrary. All of the options for socialization from pre-social media still widely available and applicable.