The @ecoTrain QOTW: Should parents set a minimum age or some restrictions for their children to own a smartphone, and if so what would they be?
We ask one question each week and our @ecotrain passengers answer! This week we have been discussing this very important question, and one that I'm sure every parent has considered and deliberated! Sometimes it is not clear what the best way forward is, and today mobile phone usage has to be one of the hardest things to manage with our kids, particularly if we as parents are also using them a lot! If you have children and are not sure whether you should buy your child a phone, or if they have one whether you should restrict their usage, then this post is for you.
Whilst there is no right or wrong answer, and ever parent's circumstances are different, I think you will all find food for thought reading these posts and writing my own. I for one have had my opinion totally reversed reading these posts, and that is quite a big deal when it comes to making big decisions on how we influence and raise our children.
If you have an opinion please let us know in the comments, or even write a post about it. I will be awarding great posts that use the ecotrain tag on this and many topics from the minnow support project. The best posts can earn up to a $5 USD up-vote .. so I hope that can inspire you to write with us and share your valuable opinions.
The answers are listed below, and you can read the full posts by clicking the read more button. Don't forget to follow the passengers that you resonate with, and please show your support by commenting.. as we just love engagement in both directions. The @ecotrain is all about connection, support and creating a dialogue between us, so if you want to receive more up-votes on your posts then you need to engage! I always take notice of people who comment and they are far more likely to receive a strong up-vote from me in their posts!
"Should parents set a minimum age or some restrictions for their children to own a smartphone, and if so what would they be?"
@holisticmom
It is a challenging time bringing up children in a world that is constantly evolving in technology.
No one really knows for sure the long term effects of screen, game or app usage. On the one hand, there have been studies that suggest children who spend long periods of time sitting around on technology could be susceptible to health risks and cognitive impairment. Although most of these hypotheses and insights are based on extreme cases where the technology becomes the babysitter, whilst parents are engrossed in their own social media world. Contradictory studies similarly exist showing the benefits of children playing video games such as better attention and memory. With all these contradictory observations, it's no wonder that many parents struggle to set appropriate boundaries.
@hopehuggs
My daughter is 7 and owns a smartphone...
This is my answer to the Ecotrain's Question of the Week: Should parents set a minimum age or some restrictions for their children to own a smartphone, and if so what would they be?
So yes, my 7-year-old has a smartphone...
Now before you all come at me and say that is awful and I must be a terrible mother, it is on the caveat that there is no SIM card in it, but she can access the internet on it.
There will be no functioning SIM card (or at least calls/messages blocked and barred from it, because the moment the phone has given up the ghost because it doesn’t have a SIM card) until she is in year 6 (age 10) and if she chooses that she wants to walk home alone from school, she can have my number only on it.
@mountainjewel
While I do believe that each family needs to make their own decisions about these types of things, I have some interesting points to make along these lines.
Earlier this year, I read this article 'Our minds can be hijacked': the tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia It details the evolution of thought by Justin Rosenstein who was on the team who developed the "Facebook Like" to give a positive reward that keeps you seeking more.
Interestly enough, years later, he now has multiple Apps on his phone which limit his own use.
@riverflows
Smartphones are a parenting nightmare. When everyone at your child’s school has a smartphone, how do you be the parent that makes your kid different because they don’t have one? When you do give your child a smartphone, how do you monitor what they are looking at? When your child resists and screams at you for taking away their smartphone, how do you respond to that? How do you protect your beautiful child from the dangers of a digital landscape?
@ecoTrains question of the week is: "Should parents set a minimum age or some restrictions for their children to own a smartphone, and if so what would they be?" I was chatting to my sister about this this morning, who told me that at my nephew's school, some kids as young as six have Instagram.
@solarsupermama
Should parents set a minimum age or some restrictions for their children to own a smartphone, and if so what would they be?
This is the ecotrain question of the week, and ooooooh boy! It’s a doozy! I reckon I might ruffle some feathers on this one, but, well, won’t be the first time. Most of you know I’m a passionate unschooler and was formerly a founder and staff member of a Sudbury school in Asheville, NC. I’ve written a fair amount about unschooling and children’s rights, and many of you, perhaps, know that freedom is a key cornerstone of my philosophy.
Very simply, my answer is this. If you can afford to buy the phone, you can have the phone.
It’s kind of tempting to just end the post there. I think it might be helpful, though, to dig in a bit to how I got to that philosophy and also “a few, um, provisos and quid pro quos” (~The Genie from Aladdin). I have let my children play on my phones/tablets under varying degrees of supervision and for varying lengths of time since they were pretty small. Mostly I take it back if I need it or see it’s being abused.
@afifa
Nowadays, children receive their first smartphone ever sooner. Even parents who would like to wait eventually give in to the pressure of the youngest of the family (or for fear that they are marginalized by their peers) or because they want to make sure during the day that their children are always safe.
However, we must never forget that smartphones are real computers, entertaining, touch-screen and portable. When left alone with this device, children and teenagers can spend hours and hours playing or watching videos on YouTube; moreover, since they are of an early age, they are more likely to lose the device or break it.
How to properly set up your children's smartphone
The settings that i will analyze are easy to select from the options; some are more generic, others more specific. In any case, let's start from some basic realities:
@vegan.niinja
Probably you all have your own way of thinking when it comes to smartphones and screen time for kids, doesn´t matter if you have kids or not, we all have some opinion on this topic.
I have seen a huge change of acceptance the last 1 or 2 years regarding smartphone use and the awareness about it. Many of us are more relaxed about the effects of using smartphones, how the radiation is influencing us and it has become more accepted to let kids play with phones at an early age, then it was only 2 years ago.
I see that the awareness and also skeptic separate classes and countries. The more knowledge, the more awareness we have of the effects from smartphones. But the common behavior is that smartphones are not bad or dangerous for kids and that it is like any other toy.
@thegreens
YES! Children can have smart phones!
We do not need to set limits for before our children can have smart phones. Children can have smart phones at any time and at any age depending on the purpose on which you want them to have a smart phone.
Before i proceed, permit me say I am Mr. Green and my wife and I have 3 kids. Our first son is 9 years old, our daughter is 5 years old and our second son is 6 months old. We love our kids with our lives and we want them to have the best in life.
I am the kind of parent who will give my kids anything so long as its within my reach to afford for what I wish for them or what they want.
@nainaztengra
This is one burning issue of the current age. Mobile phones use restriction is not only for Children but also for adults, but yes it's a critical issue for children.....
Parents think mobile phones are a key necessity for children. I will not say its a necessity, I can say its more of a convinience.
This is my personal opinion tbat the children should be given mobile phones at an age of 13 or 14. Which also is not a necessity.
20 years back if we look back there were no mobile phones and children did perfectly fine without them. They went for tuitions without phones, they completed their projects without phones, they went for birthday parties, school picnics, holidays with families all without mobile phones and did perfectly fine. Hence to an extent I believe that it is perfectly ok if children are not given mobile phones.
But what we see today is a competition amongst children of who owns the best phone. Its become a status quo for the children.
We see almost every child with a hi-tech phone.
@trucklife-family
I am very much an outdoor person. Before steemit came along I never spend much time in front of a screen. I believe their is far too much to be done away from them. I like to feel my feet on the earth and my face in the sun. If I am not outside everyday I can feel the effects it has on me.
My laptop, actually this is the first one I have ever had that was just mine, is my only link to the internet. I do not have a smart phone, because for one I can't afford one and two I only need a phone to make calls and text people, so I have the cheapest one you can buy, which was actually a present from my sister, so I didn't really have to spend any money so hooray for that.
Before I had children I was always dead against the idea of young children having phones and watching anything on a screen. I had my first daughter and as I didn't really watch anything myself, maybe the odd movie at night when she was in bed, it was easy not to have to worry about her asking because she never really saw us using our laptop to watch anything.
@eco-alex
I'm all for keeping life as simple as possible.. and this motto is quite relevant to this post! When I first pondered this question my initial feeling was.. HELL YEAH, we should absolutely put restrictions on our kids to protect them from becoming addicted little drones. How can we expect children to overcome the dopamine enducing, tranced out state that being plugged in to your phone can bring? I know of many adults, including myself, that have become more and more dependent on these gadgets to get through the days and even nights. What is it that is so compelling about being connected to everyone we know all of the time.. Why is it so necessary to read the news, watch you-tube constantly, and basically live outside of our bodies and engage the world through a digital portal rather than our very real and ever present physical reality? Well, keeping with my motto of keeping life as simple as possible I'd like to answer this weeks question quite simply!
@sharoonyasir
This is a topic quite close to my heart so I was really charged to write on it. Here is my take on it.
I am not addicted to my Smartphone at all. I got a phone, not a Smartphone when I was 16 and most of my friends and even my younger sister had gotten one when she was 14. I was never really interested in it but when I saw everyone flashing their own phone, I wanted one too. But even when I had it, I wasn't glued to it 24/7. Well, yeah there was a time when the adolescence hormones were running crazy inside me and I did have infatuation for someone so I did spend time with that person through my mobile phone, but that didn't last for too long.
Now too, I do use a Smartphone; it is quite an inefficient one really and I use it primarily because of my work requirements, I am not at all addicted to it. I do not use it all the time. In fact, I managed to stay alive without a phone for 3 whole weeks too. Woah! Can you believe that? I know @trucklife-family would be happy to hear that and she can believe this because this amazing woman doesn't have a Smartphone. Good job my lady! So yeah, I can survive without a phone and I believe each one of us can and should too.
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ecotrain is very amazing,super writing
Wow its great magazine, and baby smile is really impressing and loving!
Really cute and adorable kids!
Lots of great answers and I see I ´m being punished for not answering the question by being deleted from the passenger´s list. 😥
Haha!! Yes likedeeler it’s true.. well ur not really anymore huh! But a dear supporter And friend u will always be!
Thanks for compiling these - I actually think I got to read all of them! We're all in agreeance that balance is needed and it can be really detrimental to be addicted to the damn things, and that it's pretty dangerous for young kids. Lots of super caring parents/phone addicts out there! He he x
STOPHi, I'm new to this platform. God bless your work and keep growing physically and mentally, I hope you go through my blog and follow me @carlosdap11
100% yes. Yes there should be age limits.
I believe a basic cell phone for a driving teenager, for away from home use only (emergencies) is ideal. Once they graduate high school, and are an adult (18-20). Then they can buy a fancy smart phone if the choose.
But a child should not be in front of a screen. Period. (with the exception of educational use)
Wow all those articles are very deep and great written. I think this topic is very interesting and we all need to consider our smartphone use a lot more!
So many different answers and perspectives and all of them make sense. Loved it!