In Denmark we are on the brink of banning smartphones in schools. Not because we want to but because all the science point toward them being dangerous. I’m personally not on the hardliner side, but I’ve yet to see a single argument as to why children need to have access to a smartphone during class except for cases of accessibility. All of the pro phones in school voices in the debate here are from the tech industry or are media science professors who haven’t done any research on the health impacts.
I think it’s wild to find HN debating whether this is similar to banning books, or how the smartphone is just the comic or the video. Especially because I assume that you weren’t allowed to read comic books during class.
I don’t think you should keep access to the devices from your children, but do they need to own their own internet connected smartphones that they can use without supervision? I don’t personally think so. This is anecdotal, but I’m in my early forties so I grew up with the internet being supervised until I had enough money to buy a PC of my own which coincidentally was around the time I was in the 8th or 9th (not sure if the age ranges are the same across US and DK grades, but I was 14ish) grade. Before that I had a Commodore 64 in my room, and I had a game boy, but if I wanted to use the internet I had to do it on the family PC. I don’t think this was intentional by my parents, I think it was because a PC was just really expensive in the early 90ies. But it worked out well. Sure my friends and I spent time at the local library, downloading images of Pamala Anderson in a swimsuit, scared the librarian would get there before it had completed loading. (If you’re young, you won’t know this fear, but images would load line by line and a big swimsuit image would take several minutes to load, often failing in the process.)
I plan on doing something similar with my children, and I really hope our legislators will help out by banning smartphones in schools. My children had access to supervised usage from 3-4ish, but we’re a bit picky about what they get to use. This is because playing things like digital puzzles don’t give children the same development as actually touchy the pieces, and because we both have an healthy hate for mindless F2P games. Not because they are inherently evil (they probably are) but because we want to play games with our children when they get older, and if they are too indoctrinated then all they’ll want to play is stuff we won’t. Which will likely happen anyway, but hey.
I think it’s wild to find HN debating whether this is similar to banning books, or how the smartphone is just the comic or the video. Especially because I assume that you weren’t allowed to read comic books during class.
I don’t think you should keep access to the devices from your children, but do they need to own their own internet connected smartphones that they can use without supervision? I don’t personally think so. This is anecdotal, but I’m in my early forties so I grew up with the internet being supervised until I had enough money to buy a PC of my own which coincidentally was around the time I was in the 8th or 9th (not sure if the age ranges are the same across US and DK grades, but I was 14ish) grade. Before that I had a Commodore 64 in my room, and I had a game boy, but if I wanted to use the internet I had to do it on the family PC. I don’t think this was intentional by my parents, I think it was because a PC was just really expensive in the early 90ies. But it worked out well. Sure my friends and I spent time at the local library, downloading images of Pamala Anderson in a swimsuit, scared the librarian would get there before it had completed loading. (If you’re young, you won’t know this fear, but images would load line by line and a big swimsuit image would take several minutes to load, often failing in the process.)
I plan on doing something similar with my children, and I really hope our legislators will help out by banning smartphones in schools. My children had access to supervised usage from 3-4ish, but we’re a bit picky about what they get to use. This is because playing things like digital puzzles don’t give children the same development as actually touchy the pieces, and because we both have an healthy hate for mindless F2P games. Not because they are inherently evil (they probably are) but because we want to play games with our children when they get older, and if they are too indoctrinated then all they’ll want to play is stuff we won’t. Which will likely happen anyway, but hey.