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Wait Until 8th

waituntil8th.org

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Re: Wait Until 8th

#21

Post by switch007 »

kardianos wrote: post #4

We have a house phone, which is normally in the unihertz "student mode" which prevents installing apps and only allowing use of some apps. When our kids ask for their own phone, the answer is always an easy no. I have no problem with computers. But the internet is not your friend. Endless content is hard for me, a developed adult to resist at times. If they want to stay up late, their forced to sneak a book into thei…

> Endless content is hard for me, a developed adult to resist at times.

Remind me of food

Would you give your kid endless access to chips and sweets?

Re: Wait Until 8th

#22

Post by spondylosaurus »

Younger millennial chiming in: I'm pretty sure that 8th grade is exactly when I got my first smartphone, although social media had a fraction of the presence back then, so it's hard to draw a direct comparison to today. But I do feel like the timing worked out well enough: not having a smartphone until that point (since they didn't exist lol) turned me into a voracious reader, and the dumbphone I did have meant I was still able to text friends sporadically (T9 anyone?), but getting a smartphone was a good step towards the increased independence and social connectivity of high school. Also brought me into the world of ebook piracy to feed my reading habit, and the world of smartphone mods/jailbreaking to feed my geek streak.

Re: Wait Until 8th

#23

Post by switch007 »

grecy wrote: post #19

I remember recently reading about a town where all the parents in the entire town agreed not to give their kids smartphones, so then none felt they were missing out. I think that could work really well

It takes a village!

Re: Wait Until 8th

#24

Post by rammer »

Wouldn't it be simpler to implement an Mobile device management app / overlay that restricts all actions but the select few.

Phone calls / SMS to 5 numbers Clock enforce GPS on until battery is less than 20 No smart phone functions No data access

Re: Wait Until 8th

#25

Post by mmcgaha »

Among my children, my oldest got an iphone for Christmas in 2007 when he was 17. The other four got them spread out over the following ten years but progressively younger in age. I cannot say that I see a big difference in their phone usage, grades, or social development. It seems to me that they all just got more attached to the phone the longer they had it. I am starting to see some push back from my 16-year-old after reading "Stolen Focus" a few months back and I hear that other kids her age are doing the same.

Re: Wait Until 8th

#26

Post by nvarsj »

jb1991 wrote: post #18
cmeacham98 wrote: post #15

I'm going to post the same comment I did last year when this showed up on HN ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36207142 ), as checking the website it still seems to be true: Literally none of the evidence on the website's own "Why" page supports their suggestion: https://www.waituntil8th.org/why-wait All of the studies (bonus points for linking to news articles instead of directly to the studies) have something…

IMO it's not the phone itself that matters, it's what the kids do on it. Phone can be good to communicate with parents, bad for nearly anything else at a young age.

Kids entire social lives run on their phones. Covid accelerated this and pushed down the age for where this was true.

Denying your kid a smart phone is basically denying them a social life nowadays. It simply doesn't work unless everyone does it.

Re: Wait Until 8th

#27

Post by michaelfm1211 »

I see the good intentions, but it's too idealistic. In many families both parents work and kids are expected to get home by themselves (such was the case for me from 3rd grade onwards). Smartphones are simply a necessity for communication and Google Maps. I can only ever see this working with upper middle class nuclear families with a stay at home parent.

Re: Wait Until 8th

#28

Post by aidenn0 »

zetazzed wrote: post #13

I'm still surprised the "dumb phone for kids" and "dumb watch with basic comms" markets are so underdeveloped (from my perspective). I would love my kids to have (a) gps tracking, (b) ability to send texts/calls to like 5 predefined numbers, (c) tell the time, and nothing else. But watches all seem to have games or weird gamified fitness trackers (Google's new fitbit for kids). Or they are super kid-ish, like bright…

Gabb seems to be the closest, but even that has a "virtual pet" type game built in that gamifies certain things.

I've also done an android phone with an MDM in kiosk mode. None of those let you limit who is contacted though, so it ends up being more like a classic dumb phone in that you can't browse the web, but can dial whomever you want. Just make sure that you disable the Google SMS app and use a stripped down one (I used simple-sms).

Re: Wait Until 8th

#29

Post by jordanthoms »

zetazzed wrote: post #13

I'm still surprised the "dumb phone for kids" and "dumb watch with basic comms" markets are so underdeveloped (from my perspective). I would love my kids to have (a) gps tracking, (b) ability to send texts/calls to like 5 predefined numbers, (c) tell the time, and nothing else. But watches all seem to have games or weird gamified fitness trackers (Google's new fitbit for kids). Or they are super kid-ish, like bright…

Also interested in this - the Apple Watch for Kids setup seems a possibility, but it's only available in certain countries
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