What's the right age to get a smartphone? • Hacker News Board

Re: What's the right age to get a smartphone?

#11

Post by bergenty » Thu, Oct 06, 2022, 1:06 AM UTC

makeitdouble wrote: post #10

pgcj_poster wrote: post #3

I don't think anyone under 120 is responsible enough for a smartphone.

The counterpoint would be to treat it like money: you don’t want to isolate a kid from it for 20 years and throw them in the ocean to learn to swim when they’re ready. Getting used to it and making mistakes while the amounts are small and reparable is a better way to make sure they don’t screw it when they’re “grown up” and supposed to be responsible.

It’s not the same. Having access to a phone can leave you scarred in your most formative years that will affect you for the rest of your life much more reliably than having an extra $10 a week can.

Re: What's the right age to get a smartphone?

#12

Post by chromatin » Thu, Oct 06, 2022, 1:43 AM UTC

dham wrote: post #7

biggerChris wrote: post #4

It depends. If your child age 12-16 years shows interest in programming. Purchase all the smartphones for them to learn to code. Or a raspberry pi.

Good call, by the time they reach retirement age they'll have a hello world program typed in.

By the time they reach retirement age, Raspberry Pi will be back in stock

Re: What's the right age to get a smartphone?

#13

Post by milchek » Thu, Oct 06, 2022, 1:46 AM UTC

guywithahat wrote: post #2

> In particular, while there is no overarching evidence showing that owning a phone or using social media is harmful to children's wellbeing in general I suppose if you don't look for something, it's impossible to find

No overarching evidence? Are they for real? I feel like there have been many studies over the years into the negative effects of social media on children. Here is one i just googled: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/dangers-of-social-media-f...

I would imagine that many of us here (being this is HN) are off social media like FB or Twitter and have felt the positive impact this has made.

Anecdotally, my wife was a high school teacher for 15 years and saw the effects of smart phones and social media first hand with her students and how behaviors and issues changed as these became more prevalent.

When we were younger, if you got bullied at school it stayed at school for the most part. Now, kids carry their smart phones, access social media, and the torment continues there. Hell, even if you’re not bullied, you’re still exposed to the facade of success and beauty online and made to feel inadequate.

I cannot understand how there is a question still about negative effects or a statement like that in a BBC article and it makes me question their angle.

I feel that we’ll one day look back on this period of giving children smart phones and social media access like we look back on smoking.

We’re talking about the smartest minds in tech building devices and apps designed to engage and capture as much attention as possible and we’re letting kids feed into this system they are absolutely not equipped for - most adults aren’t either.

There are plenty of ‘dumb’ devices out there for kids that will give parents what they might need to communicate and keep an eye on their kids should they choose to.

Re: What's the right age to get a smartphone?

#14

Post by milchek » Thu, Oct 06, 2022, 1:59 AM UTC

A better question: why does a child need a smartphone?

I don’t want this to be a “back in my day” old man yells at cloud type of rant, but seriously, why?

What I’ve observed, often, is the child requests a smartphone because someone else at school has one, or the “cool kids” have them. Parents don’t want their children to be outcasts, so, they give in and buy the phone. The parents then have to contend with managing device time and trying to control conversations online. Many give up.

I have not observed anything good yet from giving children smartphones, honestly. The main benefit is parents can track and communicate with their children more easily, well, their are ‘dumb’ devices for that as well which are less harmful to a child's mental health.

Don’t get me wrong. The internet can be a wonderful place. There are some truly awesome ways people can learn and connect thanks to the web, but smartphones and social media for children are not one of those ways in my opinion. All i’ve seen from this combination is anxiety, depression and other negative effects.

Re: What's the right age to get a smartphone?

#15

Post by entropicgravity » Thu, Oct 06, 2022, 2:26 AM UTC

milchek wrote: post #14

A better question: why does a child need a smartphone? I don’t want this to be a “back in my day” old man yells at cloud type of rant, but seriously, why? What I’ve observed, often, is the child requests a smartphone because someone else at school has one, or the “cool kids” have them. Parents don’t want their children to be outcasts, so, they give in and buy the phone. The parents then have to contend with managing…

Upon turning thirteen, a feature phone with a white list and hours restricted to 7am to 8pm except for family members.

Possibly a feature phone before that age but white listed to family and trusted adults only.

Get off my lawn.

Re: What's the right age to get a smartphone?

#16

Post by govg » Thu, Oct 06, 2022, 2:35 AM UTC

milchek wrote: post #14

A better question: why does a child need a smartphone? I don’t want this to be a “back in my day” old man yells at cloud type of rant, but seriously, why? What I’ve observed, often, is the child requests a smartphone because someone else at school has one, or the “cool kids” have them. Parents don’t want their children to be outcasts, so, they give in and buy the phone. The parents then have to contend with managing…

All of their friends are on social media, all you do by taking their phones away is that they're no longer able to talk to their friends and engage in content / share information in the same way as all of their peers do worldwide. Phones and social media definitely have drawbacks like you mention, but the world has clearly made its peace with that. Using a phone is pretty fundamental to how people interact / engage / consume content in the current age, especially in the youth demographics.

It's far better for children to be educated about a tool / told about the benefits and drawbacks than just be outright denied it, when as soon as they are out of college they will be reliant on a phone for practically all of their day to day life. (And no, I'm not taking about the 1% of people who don't use their phones usually or work entirely on their laptops, that's not the mainstream mode of operation)

Re: What's the right age to get a smartphone?

#17

Post by makeitdouble » Thu, Oct 06, 2022, 2:59 AM UTC

bergenty wrote: post #11

makeitdouble wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The counterpoint would be to treat it like money: you don’t want to isolate a kid from it for 20 years and throw them in the ocean to learn to swim when they’re ready. Getting used to it and making mistakes while the amounts are small and reparable is a better way to make sure they don’t screw it when they’re “grown up” and supposed to be responsible.

It’s not the same. Having access to a phone can leave you scarred in your most formative years that will affect you for the rest of your life much more reliably than having an extra $10 a week can.

It all comes down to the amount: is it an extra $10 or $1000 you are getting ?

Having a cell phone with limited access, or a cell phone with no supervision and a credit card in it are two completely different propositions. People in these discussions tend to assume the latter, when most parents go for the former and progressively relax the limitations and supervision.

Looking around, kids are getting smartphones primarily to call/be called by their parents, message relatives, and use Google Maps when they're lost. Smaller kids have everything else locked away, and only expand their interaction circle to school and friends before getting access to the wider web.

Re: What's the right age to get a smartphone?

#18

Post by mikewarot » Thu, Oct 06, 2022, 3:44 AM UTC

I mine at 58 years old (this year). I'm not sure I'm mature enough for it. It's a clunky, yet seductive slab of glass, what with that persistent lure of connectivity to the world, and access to the sum of all human knowledge.

More horsepower than the Cray, without the cooling, raised floor, maintenance or power bills, and yet the NSA doesn't object to me owning one myself... could it be the tracking it affords them?

It came configured to connect almost effortlessly to a cluster of malevolent artificial intelligences that, when combined, put HAL or SkyNet to shame... the FAANG "engagement" Algorithms.

Upon receiving this piece of sexy science fiction, I removed the lures to said "social media", disabled almost all notifications, and got used to it. I get notified almost inaudibly when I get a text, and a ring with a phone call.

I do like the flashlight mode (which sounded silly, but works out quite well) and the camera is better than my Casio QV-10, but not as good as my Nikon D5100, except that its always with me, which makes it the best camera.

Re: What's the right age to get a smartphone?

#19

Post by 6510 » Thu, Oct 06, 2022, 3:56 AM UTC

warinukraine wrote: post #6

biggerChris wrote: post #4

It depends. If your child age 12-16 years shows interest in programming. Purchase all the smartphones for them to learn to code. Or a raspberry pi.

A smartphone to learn how to code? Not sure if sarcastic....

Coding is not allowed.

Re: What's the right age to get a smartphone?

#20

Post by jhbadger » Thu, Oct 06, 2022, 4:20 AM UTC

milchek wrote: post #14

A better question: why does a child need a smartphone? I don’t want this to be a “back in my day” old man yells at cloud type of rant, but seriously, why? What I’ve observed, often, is the child requests a smartphone because someone else at school has one, or the “cool kids” have them. Parents don’t want their children to be outcasts, so, they give in and buy the phone. The parents then have to contend with managing…

I'd agree, but I'm probably older than you (52) and remember the pressure to have cool clothes like Members Only jackets in the 1980s. Smartphones are the modern version. It's easy to stand by as a parent and say "you don't need this, son" but an adult (or even a college student) can buck trends and seem all the cooler for it, but it doesn't work that way in high school or younger.