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by albertopv 1187 days ago
"We give 5 year olds smartphones"

Well, maybe don't do it? Maybe not until they are 12yo or something like that? My feeling is many parents don't want to parent at all and so they delegate to smartphone, tablets and TVs. Parents should go back to be more...parents.

We don't have an ipad exactly because otherwise my 6yo would like to play with it (her friends have one) instead of going out and play outside. In my opinion children should not have a smartphone, do tangible stuff and games.
1 comments
inDigiNeous 1187 days ago
Well, I dont do that.

But what are you going to do about the majority of people doing this ? And children looking at their phones. I've heard of tales of second graders looking at porn together while on recess, that is the world we now live in.

There should be some good defaults. I agree with you totally, it makes no sense to give under 10 year olds smart phones.

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brabel 1187 days ago
> But what are you going to do about the majority of people doing this ?

What the hell, why do you care what other parents do or not do?? How about we let them make their own choices?! Geez, what kind of authoritarian mindset is this kind of argument coming from?

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alienicecream 1187 days ago
Do you have children?
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MandieD 1187 days ago
Because unless I want to be one of those snotty mothers who will only allow my child to associate (play, do sports, go to school) with the children of other parents who don’t allow their children unsupervised access to mobile devices, my child will effectively also have unsupervised access to mobile devices. Probably not when he’s 6 or 7, but definitely by the time he’s 9, if one of his less-supervised classmates has a smartphone, my kid will be seeing all sorts of things I’d rather he not see before he’s in his teens.

I’d like for my kid to grow up with kids from all backgrounds, not just the children of those of us who have been exposed to tech for so long and so deeply that our concern for its downsides on our kids outweighs the temptation (which is less when your life is easier) to shove a mobile in a fidgety toddler’s hand or pay 10 EUR/mo to give a primary school kid a reliable distraction.

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