The Atlantic: What Kids Told Us About How to Get Them Off Their Phones
In March, the Harris Poll surveyed more than 500 children ages 8 to 12 across the United States, who were assured that their answers would remain private. They offered unmistakable evidence that the phone-based childhood is in full force. A majority reported having smartphones, and about half of the 10-to-12-year-olds said that most or all of their friends use social media.
Asking children what to do usually isn’t a good idea because they don’t have experience or maturity, and they are not a disinterested third party. In this case, they make good points.
This digital technology has given kids access to virtual worlds, where they’re allowed to roam far more freely than in the real one. About 75 percent of kids ages 9 to 12 regularly play the online game Roblox, where they can interact with friends and even strangers. But most of the children in our survey said that they aren’t allowed to be out in public at all without an adult. Fewer than half of the 8- and 9-year-olds have gone down a grocery-store aisle alone; more than a quarter aren’t allowed to play unsupervised even in their own front yard.
Parents seem to get so wrapped up in the day-to-day, that they don’t take the time to figure out a parenting strategy. It’s incredible that any parent would buy a 9 year-old a smart phone and let them lose on social media. A flip phone covers most of the productive uses for a phone, without the danger.
It is very strange that parents give their children a device to interact with anonymous strangers, and provide very little oversight. Sure, there are settings and filters, but it only takes one child with a savvy and mischievous older sibling to defeat those safeguards on everyone’s phone. Good people who should be good parents, are aware of the danger and go along with this.
At the same time, children aren’t allowed any freedom in real life. Friends who grew up as free-range kids have many stories of young adventure and peril, don’t let their kids leave the yard. These friends loved their childhood, but deny that to their own children. It’s baffling.
The article explores all of this, makes good points and has workable solutions. It won’t help. For some reason, parents are all mixed up.