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A comment on Congress Wants to Hand Your Parenting to Big Tech. Parent comment

Re:Congress Wants to Hand Your Parenting to Big Tech by koolba on Saturday January 17, 2026 @06:15PM (#46663108)
> The problem with "let the parents decide" is that if all other kids in the neighborhood have phones and are on social media then unless you want your kid to grow up with no friends you don't have a choice but to let your kid also use social media.

This is why you find a circle of friends and like mind neighbors who raise their kids in a manner that makes you comfortable. It’s never 1:1, but it doesn’t have to be you against the entire world either. (Though it can certainly feel like that at times)

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Re:Congress Wants to Hand Your Parenting to Big Tech by lateforwork on Saturday January 17, 2026 @07:07PM (#46663485)
> This is why you find a circle of friends

Think about EU standardizing USB-C for charging. Many people were up in arms: Do you want the state to decide these things? However, personally I benefited. Now I have to carry around only one charger for all my devices.

If the govt standardizes non-smart phones for kids we will all benefit.

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Re:Congress Wants to Hand Your Parenting to Big Tech by irishcoffee on Saturday January 17, 2026 @07:28PM (#46663614)
I would be completely down with kids only allowed to own flip phones without apps or internet. Phone calls and texts, bring back the infamous T9, kids under 16 are not allowed to be sold a non-flip phone.

Of course this doesn’t address tablets, netbooks etc.

So the actual answer is good parenting, which I posit is one of the bigger problems in the US today and has been for a long time.

Or we keep pretending that pushing education and passing laws about cell phones will somehow be a substitute for bad parenting. The US has been doing that for a long time as well, isn’t working.

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Re:Congress Wants to Hand Your Parenting to Big Tech by Shellban on Saturday January 17, 2026 @09:54PM (#46664421)
At what cost, though? Most laws have some sort of benefit, but it always comes at a cost. Are we all willing to pay that cost?
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