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Comment by samaritan17 | Hacker News Reader

I know that my voice will be in a minority, but I would absolutely forbid the use of smart devices for children under 14 years old.

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Speaking as someone of similar mind, but who has children, it's rather challenging to accomplish when your child's friends and peers are all equipped with such devices _and_ the teachers assume that they are available. It's hard enough on your children to be the odd one out, it's harder still when the teachers are assuming that students are equipped with immediate access to the internet and productivity software.

I wonder what the future is going to look like when analog methods of communication have been eschewed for several generations. Imagine how vulnerable we will be to a massive Carrington event when most of the population is barely capable of (or incapable of) multiplication and division. Antique solar-powered calculators will be back in vogue!

> it's rather challenging to accomplish when your child's friends and peers are all equipped with such devices _and_ the teachers assume that they are available.

Especially that last part is increasingly becoming an issue. While Germany bans "smartwatches for children", we Germans don't bat an eye about introducing expensive and delicate Apple iDevices as learning tools in schools.

On one hand that's cool on the other hand I'm not sure I like the idea of a publicly funded education system funneling kids and young adults into the closed garden of Apple and all of it is paid for by tax-payer money.

There have already been cases where parents were told that their kids had to change classes if they are not willing to buy a 500€ Apple tablet (+200€ for insurance and a case) [0]. I can only imagine how this plays out down the line; separated education based on the financial situation of parents.

[0] https://www.abendblatt.de/region/stormarn/article207832695/S...

I also spoke as a parent of a child (6yo). In our family, the child does not have access to TV, computers and smartphones. I can now see the difference between children of his age who have endless access to telephones, gaming consoles, TV, and with whom "old" ways of knowing the world are practiced: games, drawing, music, reading books with parents, crafts, etc.

This is very hard to do, as the parent. We live in a society in which a lot of parents not even though to reflect on this topic and to think what will happen next with their child. So often you can see how parents use the phone as a means of appeasing a child in any situation.

These children are no longer ways to come up with something. Their head is already full of forms, images from computer games, TV shows. Many of them are physically weak for their age. This is scary.

There's quite a difference between 6 and 14.

I'm not sure you understand the amount of hatred a 14 year old might have against you if you forbid him to have a smartphone.

A case could be made in court that such a restriction is illegal and a form of bad parenting.

Ha. My 14 year old can have a smart phone when she gets a job, saves up for it and pays for it herself.

That'll teach her to value it (and not lose/smash it like my 15yo mentee keeps doing.) It also means she probably won't have one till she's 16 or so.

Disclaimer: I actually only have a two year old. Maybe I'll change my mind in the next twelve years, who knows.

When I was 14 all the cool kids had pagers and gameboys. I survived without the former.

Besides, being hated by your kids from time to time is part of being a good parent.

My apologies, I took "but I would" as an indication of future intent. :)

You understood me absolutely correctly. I was talking about how to implement this rule globally. Now no one forbids me to do this within the family.

I think 14 is a bit old, maybe 10 and under IMO. Though, things are a bit different these days and smartphones are far more capable devices than what I was using at that age (barely-online computer with RAM counted in the megabytes).

Do have you have a reason for that?

There are a lot of studies that show that the phone has a negative impact on the development of the child. You can google: why smartphones are bad for kids site:*.edu

But even without all of this researches, I see a difference between children whose parents do not control access and those who have control.

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