3 ms·

First, at 6 why does your kid even need to know what a smartphone is? At 6, a phone should be to "call people", period. Second, it can be expensive and therefo

• Mezzie 3y ago
  If 6 bothers you, the number of toddlers/infants I see using phones and tablets would really concern you. I'd say a good half of the kids who are brought into the store where I work end up on a tablet or phone without an adult. Including the little littles.
• mym1990 3y ago
  Because for a lot of parents it is a way to get their kid to engage with something other than the parent.
  • api 3y ago
    What little kids want and need is other little kids, but we do so little of that and seem to have structured our society to make it hard for kids to get together. When we set up play dates for our kids there is zero interest in devices unless it's to play a game together with the other kids, and even that is rare. They also lean less on the parents when other kids are around because playing with other kids is what they really want. When you look at the stupid videos, a good chunk of them give a sense of social presence. That's what the kids are craving. Pseudo-social media is a fake substitute, like artificial fruit flavoring.
    • kenjackson 3y ago
      I think the issue is more when other kids aren’t available. For example, you have to go to bank to speak to an advisor about something.
• ben_w 3y ago
  The "phone" part of a smartphone may not be of any importance to a kid, but are they even that to average adults any more? I'm not even sure when I last used that aspect on mine for anything other than SMS-based 2FA. I wouldn't trust the general web to be age-appropriate for under-12s these days, including all advertising in any apps, but that doesn't mean I can't sympathise with parents desperate for some distraction. My parents had it relatively easy with me: when I was five, I was using a Commodore 64, learning to read from its user manual and just starting to notice that the loading screens for some games counted oddly, going "…, 8, 9, A, B, …" The worst that any of that meant for my parents was the incredibly minor point that that I was aware enough to notice the dual meaning of "Jet Set Willy".
  • true_religion 3y ago
    Smartphones are just safer computer. By their nature they are more locked down than general PCs. With the right apps and restrictions, a smartphone is basically just a handheld console no different from a gameboy in functionality.
    • ben_w 3y ago
      To an extent, although iPod touch and iPad mini would then be potential alternatives that may be better suited. Unfortunately there is also too much pressure for constant analytics for me to feel at ease with the modern world, even in cases where I know from the inside that GDPR is being taken 100% seriously. I'd be in favour of a change in the law such that analytics was banned, and/or software was required to function offline…
• liminal-dev 3y ago
  Your comment is condescending against OP's parenting style. It is difficult to control how your child perceives phones, as managing their exposure to them is impossible, especially when taking your child outside where they'll see people using them in public. They may also visit a friend whose parents let them use a phone, so again, it's an uphill battle.
  • dudul 3y ago
    I wouldn't call it condescending but yes, I dispute the fact that "well it's how it is. Nothing parents can do." I have no problem expressing judgment or opinion on how others raise their kids. My 8 year old has never used a tablet. He thinks phones are just to call people. He just knows that people use them for dumb things just because they can't bare to be alone with their thoughts for 2min. Yes it is a "battle" and it requires time and effort. It's not impossible. Uphill battle for sure, one that I will probably lose, but still worth fighting.