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There is literally no reason for anyone under the age of 18 to own a smartphone or have unsupervised use of any internet-connected device. Literally none.
by gaius 9y ago
There is literally no reason for anyone under the age of 18 to own a smartphone or have unsupervised use of any internet-connected device. Literally none.
- bad_good_guy 9y agoUnder 18? Are you serious? You think a 15 year old doesn't deserve a single ounce of independence? Teens should be educated on proper use of the internet, not prohibited from it without trading away their privacy to parents.
- eeks 9y agoMy 16 years old will be pretty independent. He'll have a car and a motorbike. He'll be able to go out by himself, experience real people. He'll be able to work odd jobs, manage his own money, read whatever books and learn whatever things he wants. But he won't have a smartphone or unsupervised internet access. Neither provide independence, but shackles to kilotons of the worst quality content humanity has ever created.
- gaius 9y agoAbsolutely. It’s sad the other comment that equates a smartphone with independence. Infact it is the exact opposite.
- toredash 9y agoAh yes, teengers with a car. That's smart.
- kgwgk 9y agoWho will supervise his internet access when he goes out by himself?
- smileysteve 9y agoNot knowing about your 16 year old; but it will be significantly difficult to deal with the peer pressure and peer influences unless you live in a different culture. The studied reason millenials were less likely to drive is not because cars got harder to afford or high school jobs harder to come by, but because of lack of interest (thanks to smart phones) Even if you don't give your children a smart phone, they're going to be exposed to this behavior from their friends. And there are already articles of children who buy "burners" to keep their privacy from their parents.
- Sileni 9y agoOwned a burner in 2006 when I realized my parents were going through my call logs. Thankfully, back then they weren't clever enough to realize they could download my text logs. Considering a smart phone can be bought for the equivalent of a month's lunch money today, good luck to anyone trying to keep one out of a kid's hands in ~2030.
- gaius 9y agotrading away their privacy to parents. Right, they should totally trade it to global corporations instead. Did you think this one through?
- strathmeyer 9y agoWhy, what magically happens when someone turns eighteen that makes them qualified to be unsupervised?
- Nullabillity 9y agoUltimately neither is particularly good, but their parents have much more immediate negative potential in their lives.
- gaius 9y agoIf your mother does your laundry you have no secrets from her
- dustyleary 9y agoWhat about a legally emancipated 17 year old? What about a 16 year old born in a country where the age of consent is 14 and the US’s views on sexuality are considered overbearing and puritanical?
- thereare5lights 9y agoThen those people can be exposed to all the suicide, pedophiles, and other negative influences as much as they want.
- gaius 9y agoHonestly, I’m expecting someone to argue that kids should be allowed to smoke crack because muh independence in a minute... you notice no one has provided a coherent reason they should have smartphones...
- girvo 9y agoI’m not agreeing with this; but the main reason I can see is that not having one when every other kid you know does will cause some issues in your peer groups. I’d expect to be mocked for it, myself. But then I’m biased: I had a smartphone that I researched, purchase, carrier unlocked and then turned into a “global” firmware from 2005, when I was 15! Having a computer in my pocket when no one else did was awesome, heh.
- commandlinefan 9y agoSpoken like somebody who is not under the age of 18 or has anyone who is living in their home.
- gaius 9y agoMy generation didn’t have ‘em and guess what, no one died. In fact that was the generation that invented all this stuff.
- dragonwriter 9y ago> My generation didn’t have ‘em What generation was that, the Boomers? Because I'm from Gen X, and I (and numerous people I knew) had unsupervised access to internet connected devices under age 18. (PC + dialup + CompuServe account, or something similar, though at the very trailing edge of Gen X it might have been a more "direct" dial-up ISP.) > and guess what, no one died. I'm pretty sure that people under 18 did die in your generation, whatever generation that was, that could have been avoided had they had access to a smartphone or other internet-connected device, especially the former. > In fact that was the generation that invented all this stuff. "All this stuff" wasn't invented by people from exclusively one generation.
- dictum 9y agoYour generation certainly had other things that your parents and grandparents would rather keep you from using/experiencing. Moreover, no one else had a smartphone, so you weren't the odd one out.
- Sentialia 9y agoAs someone who is under the age of 18, I would respectfully have to agree with the statement in question. The Smartphone -- or more specifically the internet -- has provided us, adolescents, a powerful platform to learn anything we want and develop into technically literate and ethical adults. Unfortunately, this has and will continue to not be the case. The internet has evolved from being a source of knowledge into a cancerous entity that craves complete and utter assimilation of any decency humans might have. While adults might be capable of avoiding the raw, seductive power of the evil this medium permits, I think I speak for the majority of teenagers when I say that we cannot. Constantly and persistently we are using the internet to perform heinous deeds unimaginable to our guardians. We have been raised in a bubble where our role models are Youtubers who have dropped out of high-school and where the names of famous scholars are annoyances of reality. We no longer look at the stars curious of the natures which lay beyond them, for we believe we have already witnessed and possess any great magnitude of beauty in our phones. We are mostly guided by the one and ever consuming belief that the internet is not an extension of our minds, but rather our minds themselves. It is a terribly sad revelation that something considered so revolutionary and representative of human ingenuity is actually something wholly malignant to the young of our species. We are mentally and emotionally undeveloped and we have been given a powerful tool without guidance on how to use it. I say these things not to bandwagon or provoke, but because I despise the creature the internet has given birth to -- me. I am a product of this vile creation and I want this cycle to stop. I do not know how many other teenagers have come to this realization or how many are still wasting away on Snapchat speaking of pointlessly obscure thoughts. But what I do know is that the internet has not enriched our lives but has rather regressed it to the point where we do anything for a couple of minutes on our phones. We are young and have been taken advantage of by political powers which want to advertise and indoctrinate; we hold unrestricted power in a domain of our own making; we are independent only in face when enslaved in heart. Destroy the internet and free us.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- sgtmas2006 9y agoYou must be fun in the world.
- stuffedBelly 9y agothis kind of "tiger parents" attitude would not work in terms of educating kids on how to deal with problems brought by modern technology and internet/social media. 18 as an age should not be a free pass to things.
- vokep 9y agoIf I had only access to supervised internet there is absolutely no way I'd have the job I have today. (or at least, I'd have it 10 years later) I agree with you up to the age of maybe 10-12, beyond that you're restricting a fully capable mind from connecting with the rest of humanity and learning. If the skill to navigate the internet isn't developed at a younger age, it'll be painfully developed as an adult much more slowly, and any mistakes much longer lasting.
- gaius 9y ago10-12, beyond that you're restricting a fully capable mind In no jurisdiction in the world is 10 considered a fully developed mind.
- vokep 9y agoI didn't say fully developed, I said fully capable which in context is to mean that they are capable of going out on the open net without anything they see permanently warping their worldview inaccurately. Its reasonable to shield children from negativity in the world they have no capability of understanding and will end up with warped ideas. At beginning adolescent age that capability is reached, and if they are further shielded from the world they'll form an inaccurate and unhelpful worldview most likely. At best their development will be delayed.