This has been so good for me and my kid. If they are out and feel like they need adult help, we are a watch tap away. If they want to come home early from a friend’s house, send me a code and I’m there. If they want to go to their friend’s house after school, I’m a text away.
We have a no phone until you’re 13 rule so while the watch is a stripped down phone, it’s not a phone so easy for us all to understand, plus it’s already stripped down, no hassle no fuss.
13? How many of their friends have phones because I would assume their using phones, just not one you gave them and I know from experience other parents do not do the most basic of filtering in their kids devices.
hey! who let this kid on Lemmy?
don’t their parents know we’re a bunch of fucking sexual deviants hell bent on the overthrowing of our oligarchic overlords?!
That’s why I sent my kid here! To be radicalised!
… but my kid is a cat…and has no opposable thumbs…and he was already an asshole…wtf am I doing with my life…
I’m pretty sure the goal behind the no phone rule is not that utilizing a phone is inherently bad, but that you’re trying to avoid building the habits and behavior that comes with having a smart phone on you, like doom scrolling, constant social media access, constant distraction etc. And in that case, the kid having some limited access to other kids phones (If they even do. Who among any of us just lets someone else use our phone unrestricted) isn’t going to undermine that effort.
Yes there are a multitude of reasons, not least that filtering only does so much and constant surveillance is unrealistic.
As well as unhealthy. Why give your kid a device if you don’t trust them with it?
That’s my standard. Either I trust them with the device, or I don’t, and no amount of filters will help me feel comfortable with giving them something early. I was a kid, and I know kids can figure out how to evade filters. I’ve done it myself.
So no, either no phone or complete trust, and they need to earn my trust first.
The raise your child to use a device appropriately. Waiting until they are a teenager is far too late to form the appropriate habits around self limiting screen time.
I get that no one wants to blame the device but this is clearly a parenting issue and I say this as someone who has on average raised far more children than anyone in my generation.
But go ahead and lean into the articles that blame on the evil algorithms and the evil corporations. Personal and parental responsibility is hard anx blaming outside influences is easy.
Raise your children or someone else will do it for you.
I am a living breathing example of a kid who got a phone at 17, I had a bit of a honeymoon period with it, had lots of fun and distraction, but eventually got used to it and actually use it for organising my schoolwork to do list, check the weather and my daily schedule.
I do tend to use social media on it, but only on the bus, since that’s usually when I don’t have anything else to do. I self limit my screen time pretty well, usually only 30 mins to an hour total per day, and I’ve always had all my devices without parental control systems, since my parents never knew how to set them up.
Also, you saying it’s never about algorithms designed to siphon your attention is inherently incorrect of a statement. They literally have hundreds of data metrics to effectively lock you into staring at the screen mindlessly, although parenting also has a part to play, since you also should teach your child on how to control their attention and harness it to actually do something fulfilling, though many parents don’t know how to.
Waiting until they are a teenager is far too late to form the appropriate habits around self limiting screen time.
Given that smartphones didn’t even exist until I was a teenager, going to go ahead and call bullshit on that.
this is clearly a parenting issue
Sure is. Too many parents handing their developing children smartphones long before they should. Luckily OP hasn’t made that mistake.
And nobody needs articles to tell them the corporations and algorithms are evil. Some of us are old enough to have lived through the advent of them.
Exactly. I see kids walking to elementary school staring at a smartphone. Why? What could they possibly need a smartphone for?
I’m not sure when we’ll give our kids phones, but certainly not in elementary school. I might start them on a flip phone in middle school/junior high (like 12-13yo) so they can text, and probably give them a PC as well around that time for intro to SM so they can keep up w/friends. But a smartphone isn’t happening for a while. Until then, if they need a phone, I’ll have one they can borrow.
But they are raising their children.
Without a phone.
The algorithms have been proven to be addictive. Do you really think Facebook is your friend? You are their product, not their consumer.
Raise your child to smoke meth appropriately.
None of their friends have phones.
Parents turn to smart watches? Not in my household! Not one more fucking non Linux piece of shit spying screen more.
A modern day equivalent of “we don’t own a tv”
I guess? I think it’s more like “we don’t have cable/satellite TV.” My kids have watches, they just don’t connect to the internet. And why should they?
I have a smart watch, but I only use it to buy stuff, and I don’t wear it everywhere either. It’s not even really connected to my phone (I have to switch profiles to connect it).
I still say this to cable companies and other tv providers, is awesome and hilarious how they can’t continue their phone sale.
Can I interest you in an IBM WatchPad? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_WatchPad
Yes, sign me up.
I stopped smoking cigarettes. I’ve moved on to cigars.
I mean you say that as a joke but cigars you don’t usually inhale into your lungs. Like you’re still at risk of mouth cancer, but if you switched from Cigarettes to cigars, you wouldn’t suffer the myriad of negative health effects that comes with being a cigarette smoker which would objectively be a huge improvement.
Moving to cigars first actually helped my father quit smoking completely
Wait you’re not supposed to inhale cigar smoke into your lungs? How do you get high from those then?
Lmao
I did that once.
Then the cancer set in
I did the cigar thing for about a year. After that I went to a pack of cigarettes a month. About a year of that and I finally quit. I smoked for about fifteen years but I haven’t smoked tobacco in over fifteen years.
Good job, that isn’t an easy task
Gotta make sure they have an
ankle monitorsmart watch!A smartwatch seems like an interesting way to keep in touch with your kid/keep track of them. I guess it could be abused like anything else though.
Why do you need to keep track of your kid? Are you ever in a situation where you don’t know exactly where they are and for some reason need to?
My kids know where they can go, when they need to check in, and what time they need to be home. They know my phone number and can call me using a trusted adult’s phone. It’s really not an issue.
My nephew has one and I kind of love getting random “have you seen cheetozard” messages from him.
What is that lol
Children’s smartwatches are a stripped-down version of a typical smartwatch, and they allow parents to restrict app downloads, usage and calls from an approved list of contacts.
All of that you can do with a phone too. I do admit thought the argument of not losing it as easily since its on your arm makes sense.
I think the not losing it and easy to carry thing is the key point. If they have to at least keep it in a backpack pocket fine, but if it has any whiff of something distracting to do on it, many kids will get distracted.
Mine have not hit that age yet so I still have time to form my opinions and be informed. As someone who likes small compact things I can’t lose, a watch sounds ideal.
I think you’re far less likely to spend a lot of screen time on a watch, hence the article
You obviously don’t have kids. I gave them crappy Minecraft watches that had a couple games on it, and they were glued to them for hours at a time. It became a pretty big problem because they were staying up late.
Just imagine what they could do with a more capable device that can talk w/ friends.
If you restrict the crap out of the phones so there is not much interesting to do for kids, it will have similar effects. E.g. they complain about YouTube on their kids phones, block it. Complain about games, don’t let them install them.
There’s also tools that can limit time spent in specific apps
It’s best when they don’t have an option to install and use this stuff to begin with, if it’s a problem. Mostly because I’m sure kids will find a way to bypass restrictions (because most these apps aren’t that good)
I’m sure, but a watch is 1000% more convenient if you don’t need any normal smart phone functionality (social media, games, internet access, media player, etc…). Its simpler to not have the option to use those features at all than to blacklist everything.
On top of that, it’s less likely to get lost or dropped/damaged like a flip phone. Probably has better battery life too. For small form-factor messaging + GPS its the most functional package.
Unless your kid, I don’t know, takes it off for some reason and leaves it at school over the weekend. Hypothetical, of course. Hasn’t happened to me once… or 4 times even.
Difference is the school isn’t going to confiscate my kid’s watch (yet)
They still make flip phones that aren’t “smart”
Yes but kids are less likely to lose watches.
Also it’s rare that a classroom would have a no watches rule.
The image here is My First Fone. For Android it has terrible notifications. I’m constantly missing messages and calls from my kid.
My kid’s been walking to/from school and roaming the neighborhood since he was 7. Apple Watch FTW. It has its legit uses.
You know there are cheaper watches that do the same thing right
Name three.
“I’m going to strap a $700 watch to this $15K bag of organs, as a tip”
Really moronic take.
Somebody doesn’t have a sense of humor it seems
I think it’s funny.
Sure, normalizing paranoia is very funny and definitely doesn’t have any real world negative consequences. Har-de-har-har.
If the neighborhood is safe for a 7 year old without an Apple watch, go ahead. If it’s but the case and they think the watch will make a difference… That’s negligence.
Sounds like something the secret government cabal would say.
You’re joking, obtusely, about abduction and murder of children. You expect people to be amused?
Black comedy/gallows humor is a thing.
You don’t need to be so uptight. Nobody’s actually advocating for the murder of children here.
I get it. I’d bet the other commenters don’t have kids. There’s hypothetical jokes about kids, then there’s jokes to someone about their actual kid. Commenting on a post VS replying to this person who has a kid.
I grew up with a very paranoid father. Somehow this guy has a stack of rough city survival stories but I couldn’t leave the suburban block. I don’t know the best way to raise a kid, but a watch and more freedom to roam sounds nice.
I have a kid. She turns 18 in September. I thought it was funny.
I also still make jokes about my mom, and she is now sitting on top of a shelf at Dad’s house as of a few months ago.
This is the internet. Some people will. Probably a lot. Do you expect everybody to have your exact same sensibles and kind of humor?
It’s a technology sub and I’ve been around long enough to know this is where the morons of the internet hang out but not everyone is as aware of the pattern.
Yes. Get used to it, we live in hell, black comedy is just about all we have left to bring some levity to the situation.
Just the tip, I promise
We do this, 2 timex family family connect watches, the older green ones off eBay. It’s perfect and it opened up the privilege of walking home from school, walking to the park, and walking to friends houses as long as they keep it charged and check in. The newer ones look like an apple watch which I felt made them a theft target but the old ones have changed the family’s life. Then, we can ask them to do chores when they get home from school, and if they do, they can ask us to unlock tablet.
I’m sure it works in theory but wearing that for however long sounds a bit much. Now, is it a good idea? That’s a whole another can of worms.
My kid has it in their schoolbag, just wears it on the way home and later if they go out. They don’t have to wear it all the time.
Reasonable point, but people have worn watches all day for centuries. Just clean then and rotate wrists.
Something that big and heavy on a kid’s arm is going to get uncomfortable after like ten minutes.
One watch, the Garmin Bounce, weights 37.2 g. https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/714945#specs
Hardly heavy.
That’s not so bad. I was looking at the picture in the article. That thing is enormous compared to the kid’s arm.
Understandable, the watch is the photo does appear large. Kid’s arms are tiny.
Honestly I would love a watch for myself that would replace a smartphone but it would be even better for kids.
Garmin makes them and have a relatively good privacy policy and track record but it would be even better if we didn’t need to trust them.
