Technology

59377 readers

3934 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

195

UK: Almost a quarter of kids aged 5-7 have smartphones (www.bbc.com)

submitted 7 months ago by boem@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

63 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 54 points 7 months ago (3 children)

People really handing their kids devices that have cellular service and unfettered internet access? All my kids devices have 2 layers of adblock, parental controls, and no cell service.

[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 37 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Ok. Or you could, you know, not give them these. Some pretty good data coming out on why this isn't a great idea. It's not just luddite ranting.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 11 points 6 months ago

Yup. I let my kids (7 and 10) play video games or watch approved shows and that's about it. They get 1 hour on Saturdays, and they can "earn" more any day by reading: 1 hour reading = 30 min "screen time." We have a max of 2 hours/day, but they can bank time day to day.

It works pretty well. They definitely abuse the system by going beyond their allotted time, but if I "find out," they lose privileges for a couple days, so it seems they stay pretty honest on average without a ton of oversight.

I don't have any parental controls/blocking except for:

ad blocker - screw ads
passcode on Switch - mostly because of my 4yo, my older kids know the code

Basically, I operate on trust and honesty, and I think it works okay.

[–] qooqie@lemmy.world 20 points 7 months ago (3 children)

I’ll probably get my kids a dumb phone for school when they get old enough. I want them to have cell service for emergencies of any kind.

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago

I thought about that but I myself am broke and have gotten all of these from relatives that no longer use them. If I could go back in time, I would have abstained and ripped our N64 from my brother's closet sooner.

[–] thr0w4w4y2@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I’d love a small box with a button that literally just calls my phone, has a mic and speaker and nothing else, no screen, no software, no proprietary lock-in. just a button.

[–] Num10ck@lemmy.world -5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

i think an apple watch eould be great for that use case.

[–] EngineerGaming@feddit.nl 7 points 7 months ago

First, it is Apple so all sorts of lock-ins. Second - not everyone is rich like you.

[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

Why would you not fetter the Internet access?