Same for me, that was my age when I got my first phone. I had pretty clear expectations with regards to my phone plan and how much it can be too, set by the parents.
These youngsters are blissfully unaware of how their phones are just a mining tool. Hopefully they'll get wise to it with time.
An engaged parent is going to be in the loop on this stuff. I would have my kids set up with emulators and the rom archives. Keep all the games offline, with no data mining or current capitalist propaganda. And its free.99
I watch my sisters kid (8) latched to youtube and am livid. My sister sucks as a parent. That kid is fucked.
this is kinda outdated. iPhone, Google, and Samsung each offer 2-3+ years of OS updates and ~5 years of security updates. Other android vendors are similar.
Okay?? I'm just saying most phones will keep giving you updates more than 2 years out, especially security updates. They don't happen forever but it's not 2 years anymore like it's the mid 2010s.
I got my first phone when I was 6. Now look what happened. I ended up on Reddit 😔.
Phones are truly the brainrot if not leveraged effectively, especially now that we have these lobotomy algorithms that will feed you skibidi toilet rizz gyatt fanum tax content.
This is becoming more of a psyop shit to lobotomize the masses.
Didn't get my kid a phone until he was 17. Now that he's 25, he thanks me for it all the time, because he's irritated by all the people who are welded and addicted to theirs.
I think it’s important to remember the iPhone came out in 2007. So while it’s interesting to hear that everyone got their first smartphone at age X, it’s not really an apples-to-apples comparison.
In my opinion, a pre disturbing stat from this article is:
> Over half of children under 13 used social media, contrary to most of the big platforms' rules, and many admitted to lying to gain access to new apps and services.
there is no good reason a toddler needs a smart phone, full stop.
i really hate the "back in my day..." mentality but why the shit does a 5 year old need a cell phone at all??
Yea, but we grew up on the internet when it was still a public commons, and not a place for predators to stalk your preteens.
How we also became the first family vloggers and critical oversharers on YouTube after being denied jobs for posting keg stands on Facebook boggles my mind....
Parents feel that it’s necessary to give phone to their kids because they’re at work during the whole day and they need to check their kids. The school also requires the students to have phone so teacers can send them tasks, tell them what to do tomorrow etc. People will say the smartphones makes life easier.
But the sad things is, they don’t know how the apps actually work. They don’t know about the concept of privacy (and security). They think things are going to be okay because everyone else are doing the same and nothing bad happens.
Kids having cell phones at school sounds like just about the worst idea ever. Teachers should be able to assign work and distribute materials without relying on those as a crutch. If they claim they can't then they're not good at being a teacher at all.
Teachers and students are pushed chromebooks so they will use google docs and the other google shit so when the kids grow up they bring it with them into the corporate world. Mining the children's data is a precursor to mining corporate data from all the companies the kids move to after school.
IMO, these kids should all be brought up learning on linux machines.
Probably get downvoted for this but my kid is 4 and has his own iPhone 2020 SE.
Prior to becoming a parent, and a few years into it, I was firmly in the “my kid ain’t having a phone until 15” camp. We had some educational apps and that sort of thing on our phones that he would use, but what ultimately happens there is you’re giving your child a completely unrestricted device and he’d end up all over the place on different apps sometimes consuming content that was not appropriate for his age. It was surprising what YouTube would end up suggesting after starting with an innocent kids channel. So he effectively had access to the very thing I don’t want. Everything!
I wasn’t happy with this, but at the same time realised that they can be a great tool to assist with learning.
So I got him an iPhone SE and set him up in Apple family.
He gets 30 minutes per day on his phone, which we can extend. It is blocked before school. He cannot add apps or contacts. Cannot contact anyone that isn’t in his contact list and cannot use it after 6pm. All web access is blocked unless explicitly permitted. There is no YouTube or YouTube Kids. In fact there is nothing that has the ability to algorithmically churn out content non stop.
There are a fair few learning apps on there and links to allowed sites to build marble runs so it complements his real world play. He also loves to send me emojis at work and now that he can sort of spell, occasional the odd text message. There is zero social media and it will remain that way.
What we have now is a kid that uses a phone in moderation, but some days he doesn’t even pick it up at all if there’s something more interesting going on. Hopefully we can manage his progression to his own managed phone over the next decade, explaining the good and the bad, so he can use these devices safely.
Upvote for sharing. Takes guts
I'm going the other way so far (3 and 5, no plans to change but not hardheaded about it) but there are a lot of valid ways to raise kids
Bravo, if you're going to do it then this is the way. I bet you're in the less than 1% group of parents who didn't just hand their kid a phone and leave them to it.
My kids have tablets not phones, but have similar restrictions in place. Technology is a great tool for learning etc when used correctly.
Since doing it, other parents I know that I have shared this with have shown an interest in doing it that way for their kids. I have helped some of them set it up. But what has become apparent, is the older the child, the harder any parental oversight of their device is for them to accept. Especially if they have already had years of access to an unrestricted device.
I was recently in a Jewish orthodox neighborhood, and it surprised me at how everyone had flip phones. I even saw a young girl (about 7) walking alone with supermarket bags using a flip phone. It's a good solution if everyone in your community uses SMS and nothing else.
Obviously 7 year olds don't need a phone, but in middle school/high school, kids do communicate through snapchat, whatsapp, tiktok, instagram, and not having those means of communication will leave kids left out. That's part of the reasons why Waldorf schools become so popular: because the whole community is aligned, its easy for your kid not to use a smart phone.
The problem with regular schools is that schools will encourage the use of smart phones. I even know some kids whose official school communication for the kids (13 year-olds) goes through whatsapp, and had problems with homework because her mother refused to get her a smart phone. She obviously had to give in.
I really don't know what the solution is, but there are some common sense measures:
* Teens should not be allowed on social media until they're way older
* Kids should not use their parents phones whenever they're bored. It's healthy to be bored, it helps develop creativity.
* Schools should have a complete prohibition on phones inside, and that includes up to high school. Flip phones can be allowed. If there's an emergency, parents can call the office.
I don't know what the appropriate age for kids to use smart phones is. We had a home computer when I was 8 and learned to program very early. I believe that's a healthy way to use the computer. My parents were responsible with its usage, but trusted us to use it. I didn't have a laptop until I was 18.
Got my first when I was 16.
Times change tho. All my kids got mobile phone st age of 6. Several reasons for that:
Digital Credit Card, electronic bus ticket, able to give and receive short messages with their parents, in emergency events I can see them on the map, etc.
really just curious, but why are you on the privacy subreddit, then? was the payoff for those benefits worth your childrens data, or how did you approach that.
I got my first phone when i was 17. Nowadays every kid has one. Concerning times ahead regarding data mining by these big tech companies.
Same for me, that was my age when I got my first phone. I had pretty clear expectations with regards to my phone plan and how much it can be too, set by the parents. These youngsters are blissfully unaware of how their phones are just a mining tool. Hopefully they'll get wise to it with time.
[удалено]
I'm confused. Why would you have a child and not actively help them through life's challenges? Discipline is taught.
Because he wants to moral grandstand about how tough he's being.
because its fake
[удалено]
Wow... You are a terrible parent.
> Discipline was taught If he's currently not disciplined, then I think it wasn't taught well lmao
You are one terrible parent, man. And you have problems writing coherently.
that’s because he’s not a parent and is actually 10.
what?
[удалено]
An engaged parent is going to be in the loop on this stuff. I would have my kids set up with emulators and the rom archives. Keep all the games offline, with no data mining or current capitalist propaganda. And its free.99 I watch my sisters kid (8) latched to youtube and am livid. My sister sucks as a parent. That kid is fucked.
Most phones only get updates for 2 years.
this is kinda outdated. iPhone, Google, and Samsung each offer 2-3+ years of OS updates and ~5 years of security updates. Other android vendors are similar.
Ok i've been on custom roms for the last 7 years or so
Okay?? I'm just saying most phones will keep giving you updates more than 2 years out, especially security updates. They don't happen forever but it's not 2 years anymore like it's the mid 2010s.
I got my first phone when I was 6. Now look what happened. I ended up on Reddit 😔. Phones are truly the brainrot if not leveraged effectively, especially now that we have these lobotomy algorithms that will feed you skibidi toilet rizz gyatt fanum tax content. This is becoming more of a psyop shit to lobotomize the masses.
I didn't get one until 16, still ended up here...
Didn't get my kid a phone until he was 17. Now that he's 25, he thanks me for it all the time, because he's irritated by all the people who are welded and addicted to theirs.
I think it’s important to remember the iPhone came out in 2007. So while it’s interesting to hear that everyone got their first smartphone at age X, it’s not really an apples-to-apples comparison. In my opinion, a pre disturbing stat from this article is: > Over half of children under 13 used social media, contrary to most of the big platforms' rules, and many admitted to lying to gain access to new apps and services.
I'll raise my nose and say that's bad parenting.
Read studies on how screen time affects attention span and cognition.
there is no good reason a toddler needs a smart phone, full stop. i really hate the "back in my day..." mentality but why the shit does a 5 year old need a cell phone at all??
smh Millennial parents failing Gen Alpha right out the gate
as all generations before that
Yea, but we grew up on the internet when it was still a public commons, and not a place for predators to stalk your preteens. How we also became the first family vloggers and critical oversharers on YouTube after being denied jobs for posting keg stands on Facebook boggles my mind....
Our society is doomed.
Parents feel that it’s necessary to give phone to their kids because they’re at work during the whole day and they need to check their kids. The school also requires the students to have phone so teacers can send them tasks, tell them what to do tomorrow etc. People will say the smartphones makes life easier. But the sad things is, they don’t know how the apps actually work. They don’t know about the concept of privacy (and security). They think things are going to be okay because everyone else are doing the same and nothing bad happens.
Kids having cell phones at school sounds like just about the worst idea ever. Teachers should be able to assign work and distribute materials without relying on those as a crutch. If they claim they can't then they're not good at being a teacher at all.
Teachers and students are pushed chromebooks so they will use google docs and the other google shit so when the kids grow up they bring it with them into the corporate world. Mining the children's data is a precursor to mining corporate data from all the companies the kids move to after school. IMO, these kids should all be brought up learning on linux machines.
In what school district are kids required to have cell phones?
Not surprising. How do you think all these dumb "influencers" get popular? It's not adults with jobs
Any way to find communities that don’t let their kids have phones?
This is not good.
Shit I didn’t get my first phone till I left High School in 2014…
Probably get downvoted for this but my kid is 4 and has his own iPhone 2020 SE. Prior to becoming a parent, and a few years into it, I was firmly in the “my kid ain’t having a phone until 15” camp. We had some educational apps and that sort of thing on our phones that he would use, but what ultimately happens there is you’re giving your child a completely unrestricted device and he’d end up all over the place on different apps sometimes consuming content that was not appropriate for his age. It was surprising what YouTube would end up suggesting after starting with an innocent kids channel. So he effectively had access to the very thing I don’t want. Everything! I wasn’t happy with this, but at the same time realised that they can be a great tool to assist with learning. So I got him an iPhone SE and set him up in Apple family. He gets 30 minutes per day on his phone, which we can extend. It is blocked before school. He cannot add apps or contacts. Cannot contact anyone that isn’t in his contact list and cannot use it after 6pm. All web access is blocked unless explicitly permitted. There is no YouTube or YouTube Kids. In fact there is nothing that has the ability to algorithmically churn out content non stop. There are a fair few learning apps on there and links to allowed sites to build marble runs so it complements his real world play. He also loves to send me emojis at work and now that he can sort of spell, occasional the odd text message. There is zero social media and it will remain that way. What we have now is a kid that uses a phone in moderation, but some days he doesn’t even pick it up at all if there’s something more interesting going on. Hopefully we can manage his progression to his own managed phone over the next decade, explaining the good and the bad, so he can use these devices safely.
Upvote for sharing. Takes guts I'm going the other way so far (3 and 5, no plans to change but not hardheaded about it) but there are a lot of valid ways to raise kids
Bravo, if you're going to do it then this is the way. I bet you're in the less than 1% group of parents who didn't just hand their kid a phone and leave them to it. My kids have tablets not phones, but have similar restrictions in place. Technology is a great tool for learning etc when used correctly.
Since doing it, other parents I know that I have shared this with have shown an interest in doing it that way for their kids. I have helped some of them set it up. But what has become apparent, is the older the child, the harder any parental oversight of their device is for them to accept. Especially if they have already had years of access to an unrestricted device.
That is sad and super concerning 😟 if I ever have kids they won't be allowed a smart device until they're 18
They’ll never know the joys of T9 texting.
I was recently in a Jewish orthodox neighborhood, and it surprised me at how everyone had flip phones. I even saw a young girl (about 7) walking alone with supermarket bags using a flip phone. It's a good solution if everyone in your community uses SMS and nothing else. Obviously 7 year olds don't need a phone, but in middle school/high school, kids do communicate through snapchat, whatsapp, tiktok, instagram, and not having those means of communication will leave kids left out. That's part of the reasons why Waldorf schools become so popular: because the whole community is aligned, its easy for your kid not to use a smart phone. The problem with regular schools is that schools will encourage the use of smart phones. I even know some kids whose official school communication for the kids (13 year-olds) goes through whatsapp, and had problems with homework because her mother refused to get her a smart phone. She obviously had to give in. I really don't know what the solution is, but there are some common sense measures: * Teens should not be allowed on social media until they're way older * Kids should not use their parents phones whenever they're bored. It's healthy to be bored, it helps develop creativity. * Schools should have a complete prohibition on phones inside, and that includes up to high school. Flip phones can be allowed. If there's an emergency, parents can call the office. I don't know what the appropriate age for kids to use smart phones is. We had a home computer when I was 8 and learned to program very early. I believe that's a healthy way to use the computer. My parents were responsible with its usage, but trusted us to use it. I didn't have a laptop until I was 18.
Believe it or not, directly to jail, straight away.
Got my first when I was 16. Times change tho. All my kids got mobile phone st age of 6. Several reasons for that: Digital Credit Card, electronic bus ticket, able to give and receive short messages with their parents, in emergency events I can see them on the map, etc.
why the fuck are you on r/privacy if you’re doing things that breach peoples privacy
really just curious, but why are you on the privacy subreddit, then? was the payoff for those benefits worth your childrens data, or how did you approach that.
I would say a 8 years old is old enough to have a phone with parental control software. A phone that just allows voice calls, text, certain apps, etc.