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Wait Until 8th

waituntil8th.org

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Re: Wait Until 8th

#161

Post by warner25 »

legitster wrote: post #121

Parent here. This is a LOT easier today than it was 5-10 years ago. It feels like there's been a generation divide where younger kids are not as insistent on smartphones as the older kids were. Maybe it was covid. But also there's a lot of negative sentiment even amongst kids about smartphones - that they are addictive, encourage anti-social behaviors, and enable bullying. "Brain-rot". Our local school district banne…

I've had this same thought. I have younger kids, so we haven't yet reached the point of needing to contend with all this (e.g. "...but everyone else has an iPhone and Instagram and Tik-Tok account..."), and I've been encouraged by what seems like an increasingly popular movement to deal with it through collective action. It does seem like parents with kids 5-10 years older went through the worst of it; with society caught off-guard and any parent who fought the problem going hard against the grain.

Re: Wait Until 8th

#162

Post by [deleted] »

diputsmonro wrote: post #72

I know the site clarifies it, but the headline messaging on this is meaninglessly confusing. "Wait until 8th!" "Oh, you mean their 8th birthday?" "No, 8th grade!" "Oh, so wait until they're in 8th grade, got it!" "No no, until the end of the 8th grade, when they graduate middle school!" "Oh, so it's really wait until 9th" Just seems like this would be the beginning of every conversation and lead to a non-unified appr…

[deleted]

Re: Wait Until 8th

#163

Post by cortesoft »

newhotelowner wrote: post #61

Our school says that every single time a kid gets a notification or call, everyone gets distracted, and that's why they are not allowing any one carry phone/smart watch. Which I totally agree with.

Not allowing something at school is a lot different than not allowing something anywhere.

Re: Wait Until 8th

#164

Post by Jach »

kawogi wrote: post #158
irrational wrote: post #149

We don’t wait. We tell the kids they can have once when they can buy it themselves. In our experience that usually happens when they are about 17.

Who will teach them how to (not) use them once they have one? I mean things like privacy, phishing, social media risks, addiction, subscription fees, etc.? I think the possession of a device isn't the risk itself.

The parent has failed if the child can't teach themselves by that age. Besides, as you say, it's not so much the phone itself -- those risks can be learned or taught separately from the phone. (I didn't have my first phone until I was 23, but I'm not a tech-clueless zoomer and grew up with message boards.)

Re: Wait Until 8th

#165

Post by ziddoap »

jMyles wrote: post #155

Every single popular / well-funded take on this topic seems to focus entirely on quantity, and not at all on quality. There are many wonderful things for kids - even very young kids - to do on the internet, in collaboration / supervision / concert with a caring adult. My now 9yo has been playing games like Monument Valley, Lost Sounds, Dragonbox, and the SNES randomizers since he was three (maybe two for some of them…

Indeed, these debates always seem to lack any sort of nuance. Probably because it's about children, and it becomes really emotionally charged.

Teaching responsible use of technology is, in my opinion, one of my duties as a parent. That includes how to responsibly use a phone, ideally with the goal of improving my kids life.

I don't allow social media (which, I think is really the core of this issue), but I do allow other things like games (in moderation, with approval), communication (with approved contacts), as a dictionary and thesaurus, as an encyclopedia, etc.

Re: Wait Until 8th

#167

Post by brewdad »

ahnick wrote: post #148
bigstrat2003 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming that's true*, it honestly isn't good reason to give your kids a smartphone. Your job description as a parent is pretty much to stop your kids from doing things they don't understand will hurt them. There's (imo) plenty of evidence that smartphones are hurting kids, and therefore it's a parent's job to crack down on it even if it costs them in their social life. Like, if all the other kids were shooting up he…

Please provide links to the "plenty of evidence that smartphones are hurting kids".

Google exists

Re: Wait Until 8th

#168

Post by ortusdux »

iwontberude wrote: post #156
Nition wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed 100%. Additional factors on top of all those is some countries start year 1 at age five, and others at age 6, and of course there's a variety of actual ages within a grade as well. "Wait Until 9th" would have definitely helped a lot. "Wait until 14" might be even clearer. Or even "wait until high school".

You work with the domains you have/can register.

https://www.whois.com/whois/waituntilhighschool.com

Re: Wait Until 8th

#169

Post by ahnick »

brewdad wrote: post #167
ahnick wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please provide links to the "plenty of evidence that smartphones are hurting kids".

Google exists

There's a lot of people making claims based on paid research with agendas to sell fear. If you think you have some real empirical evidence that will standup to scrutiny, by all means share.

Re: Wait Until 8th

#170

Post by yayoohooyahoo »

kelnos wrote: post #89
chris_wot wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is clearly aimed at Americans only.

Well, "Wait for 8th or whatever the similarly-aged grade level is in your area" doesn't sound quite as punchy. This is applicable to anyone, anywhere, though sure, it's targeted at a US audience.

The point is that this website is not applicable to anyone, anywhere, since the core message is strictly US-only.

If the authors were aware of this, they may have focused their message on, eg the children's age, which should be more universal.

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