Re:Committed to a Safer Google Play for Families
by smackay on Sunday September 01, 2019 @06:00AM
(#20851436)
> competing to see who's last
That's a very interesting observation but to really get it to work requires very close cooperation between parents. That takes a lot of time and goodwill which is not easy to create or maintain except in very special circumstances or in rather closed groups.
Our fatal mistake was to get a phone for our son when he started to walk home from school in case there was any change in the usual schedule. Once the genie is out of the bottle any protocol or agreements are negated pretty much instantly. There are so many pressures to encourage phone use (messaging, etc.) it's impossible to restore any level of control without (potentially severe) social consequences for the kids.
I will say I tried to be the dad that gave them access on the theory that 'they'll have to learn sometime, better while they're under parental supervision." How wrong I was. The phones are like crack to an addict.
My advice to my friends with significantly younger kids (mine are 14 and 17 now): you don't want your kids to be the first in their cohort to have a phone, and you probably don't want to be last, but you and the parents of their friends should be competing to see who's last.