> The kids themselves don’t get phones at all. When my 12-year-old daughter walks home from school without one, I intentionally have no idea where she is, just like nobody knew where kids were when I was growing up. How rare it is these days not to be able to know something.
Brilliant, but she's 12. There's an astounding difference between "knowing where my daughter is" and "enabling my daughter to call for help (e.g., 911) if she's in an emergency." You don't have to be a helicopter parent and track her location to give her the ability to have a tangible, modern benefit of a phone: the ability to immediately have police or paramedics if she needs them.
Brilliant, but she's 12. There's an astounding difference between "knowing where my daughter is" and "enabling my daughter to call for help (e.g., 911) if she's in an emergency." You don't have to be a helicopter parent and track her location to give her the ability to have a tangible, modern benefit of a phone: the ability to immediately have police or paramedics if she needs them.