Sitting in front of a phone all day at this age leads to severe mental health problems and is probably the biggest portal for unfiltered harmful content

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7012622/

I'd wager that at 16 years old having no privacy and such a nasty relationship with your parent would have much worse effects

You're assuming the relationship is nasty. It isn't a given that people who raise kids differently than you do will fill them with hatred and bitterness.

"monitoring the little bastard doesn't know about via my WiFi router" proves for me but of course that will be a matter of opinion

That language is not offensive in many social groups, some families included. You're reading way too much into a random drive by internet comment

My son and I have a great relationship.

I’m originally from West Virginia. Its our way of saying “good kid, gets into trouble sometimes though”.

He’s a straight A student.

When he had unmonitored internet, he wasn’t. His friends who have unmonitored internet aren’t.

Leaving teenagers with anytime unfiltered internet access to highly addictive services like TikTok is scientifically shown to be harmful.

He’s not an adult. This isn’t complicated.

To me it is an enormous step toward abuse when it is monitoring that the 16 year old doesn't know about. Even for a much younger child I would find that very disturbing. Just doing some filtering or time limits is completely different. I'm over 30 now and if I found out even now that my parents surveilled me secretly when I was 16 I would be disgusted, so just be prepared that your child will never talk to you again if he finds out, if he's anything like me. Maybe he is friendly with you now but it is on false grounds because he doesnt know what you are doing and you are deceiving him

That study appears to conflate smart phone use with social media use. Which one is really to blame?

He is 16 lol

I saw plenty beheadings and horse appendages.

I have a friend attending Stanford for undergrad whose parents monitor his location 24/7, and another dealing with the same nonsense at BU. If she wanders too far from the places she's supposed to be, she gets an angry call from parents/her long distance bf (who is also in on it somehow).

I guess even that isn't that bad compared to the parents that literally move across the country to wherever their kid is going to college so they can keep controlling them.

A bit like house arrest then.

Wow I can't imagine the mind of people that trust their kids enough to give them a $300000 education at Stanford and then keep such close tabs on them.

He’s an adult. That’s ridiculous.