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What kids told us about how to get them off their phones

theatlantic.com

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Re: What kids told us about how to get them off their phones

#71

Post by mhuffman »

lm28469 wrote: post #61
amtamt wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> United States is so rare that a child would have to be outside unsupervised for, on average, 750,000 years before being snatched by a stranger. Is this stat from 1980s or recent? If recent, what may be the likelihood that such stats are the outcome of parents' paranoia?

There are 300 kid abductions per year in the US, more or less the same amount of people who got struck by lightning or the same about of kids who drown in swimming pool. I don't see any hysteria around two of these topics though

Is that 300 kid abductions by strangers? Because just based on the amber alerts that I get where the police suspect a parent that number can not possibly be correct if not.

Re: What kids told us about how to get them off their phones

#72

Post by mhuffman »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #20
kevingadd wrote: post #3

> Since the 1980s, parents have grown more and more afraid that unsupervised time will expose their kids to physical or emotional harm. In another recent Harris Poll, we asked parents what they thought would happen if two 10-year-olds played in a local park without adults around. Sixty percent thought the children would likely get injured. Half thought they would likely get abducted. > These intuitions don’t even beg…

My son recently had to get rabies shots. Well, that was the recommendation because there was a bat in the sleeping quarters of his camp. The probability that the bat had rabies is vanishingly small. Just like the probability that the bat bit him with no marks. But, you read about rabies (no cure, horrible death), and even if it is a 1-10 million chance and you can do something about it — well, he got the shot (over m…

I get a similar response when talking with other parents about allowing phones in school. We know that there are 130k+ schools in the US, and that a school shooting is statistically very, very small, however they still want to have a way for their children to contact them (or for them to contact their kids) if this happens. The mothers, in particular, all agree on this in my circle.

Re: What kids told us about how to get them off their phones

#73

Post by mtalantikite »

s_dev wrote: post #41
mtalantikite wrote: post #23

> ...we asked parents what they thought would happen if two 10-year-olds played in a local park without adults around. Sixty percent thought the children would likely get injured. Half thought they would likely get abducted. During summer vacation when I was 10 (early 90s) I'd leave the house in the morning and head down to the local park to play basketball or roam the neighborhood with the other kids. We'd ride our…

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/north-carolina-child-kil... https://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/31/living/florida-mom-arrest... The US is seeming more bonkers day after day. These sorts of stories just don't make sense to me. We have issues in Ireland with children and teenagers going around engaging in anti-social behaviour but there is a balance to be found between these two extremes.

It's unfortunately very American. Build the entire environment for cars, with very little if any thought for pedestrians, and then put the parents in prison for letting their kids walk a few blocks home, while the driver of the enormous SUV that kills a child has no charges brought against them. We've entirely lost the plot here.

Re: What kids told us about how to get them off their phones

#74

Post by jeffbee »

bandofthehawk wrote: post #50
jeffbee wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get it either, especially because I don't know any parents who act like this. All the kids in my neighborhood just roam around, including mine. I wonder if this is another coastal/inland, liberal/conservative rift where the conservatives are for some reason afraid of everything.

I think it might be less about left/right and more about suburban and car culture vs. urban or rural. People living in the suburbs tend to drive everywhere anyway and perceive things outside of the car as dangerous.

I feel like the two things are in a causal loop.

Re: What kids told us about how to get them off their phones

#75

Post by mtalantikite »

Rakshith wrote: post #68
mtalantikite wrote: post #23

> ...we asked parents what they thought would happen if two 10-year-olds played in a local park without adults around. Sixty percent thought the children would likely get injured. Half thought they would likely get abducted. During summer vacation when I was 10 (early 90s) I'd leave the house in the morning and head down to the local park to play basketball or roam the neighborhood with the other kids. We'd ride our…

this was probably before your country opened the doors to rapists and violent murderers to come live amongst yall though

I hate to break it to you, but the violent murderers have always been here and they're probably not the people you're thinking of...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_genocide_in_th...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treatment_of_slaves_in_the_Uni...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_in_the_United_States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porvenir_massacre_(1918)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_America...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_massacre

etc etc etc

Re: What kids told us about how to get them off their phones

#76

Post by jacknews »

"always available and will cater to a child’s every whim. But AI will never fulfill children’s deepest desires."

I'm pretty sure it will be able satisfy almost every desire. But I think there's quite a confusion about desire, even deep desire, and deep needs and what's ultimately good for us.

Capitalism makes the same mistake.

Re: What kids told us about how to get them off their phones

#77

Post by bpt3 »

jeffbee wrote: post #5
kevingadd wrote: post #3

> Since the 1980s, parents have grown more and more afraid that unsupervised time will expose their kids to physical or emotional harm. In another recent Harris Poll, we asked parents what they thought would happen if two 10-year-olds played in a local park without adults around. Sixty percent thought the children would likely get injured. Half thought they would likely get abducted. > These intuitions don’t even beg…

I don't get it either, especially because I don't know any parents who act like this. All the kids in my neighborhood just roam around, including mine. I wonder if this is another coastal/inland, liberal/conservative rift where the conservatives are for some reason afraid of everything.

Reporting from the conservative stronghold of the inner DC suburbs, kids are generally not allowed to wander unsupervised until they are in high school.

In my experience, kids have very little unscheduled/unsupervised time in more liberal areas, but I think that has little to nothing to do with political leanings and much more to do with parental expectations and availability of disposable income and leisure time.

Maybe you should try viewing things outside of a political lens, especially one where the other side is unexplainably but unquestionably wrong by default, and see how things look.

Re: What kids told us about how to get them off their phones

#78

Post by jeffbee »

83457 wrote: post #65
gambiting wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At 7 years old my parents would leave for work before I had to go to school, so I had to eat breakfast, dress myself and go to school, locking the door behind me - the walk was across few busy streets which I was told how to cross. Then I would come back before they were home so likewise, I had to let myself in and just wait for them to come back. I think nowadays if I did that with my son I would have child services…

I can't tell if you are advocating for that to still be common. Regardless, I just want to point out the survivor bias in anyone saying this should still be done based on stories like this one. The children in similar circumstances who were killed aren't here to talk about it. (Not trying to be rude)

Do you think there was widespread death of latchkey kids in the 80s? Get a grip.

Re: What kids told us about how to get them off their phones

#79

Post by cameldrv »

hydrogen7800 wrote: post #39
mtalantikite wrote: post #23

> ...we asked parents what they thought would happen if two 10-year-olds played in a local park without adults around. Sixty percent thought the children would likely get injured. Half thought they would likely get abducted. During summer vacation when I was 10 (early 90s) I'd leave the house in the morning and head down to the local park to play basketball or roam the neighborhood with the other kids. We'd ride our…

I guess I'm about your age, and I remember doing much of the same. Lots of time on my bike with friends, playing hockey or football in the street, "manhunt" at night around the neighborhood (we were too cool to call it hide-and-seek at that age). But I also remember playing video games indoors, and my mother reminding us about how her mother kicked her out of the house when she was young, and how they were outside un…

Me too. One thing I noticed in the 2000s was kids being more and more restricted and then they started getting drivers licenses later, living with their parents after college, etc. It felt as if parents thought that when their kid turned 18, that they would magically mature and become independent. Of course this is a process, and you can start it at 7 or you can start it at 18…

On a happy note, we were out eating at a cafeteria type restaurant, but we were sitting outside sort of picnicing about a 3 minute walk away. My son wanted another slice of pizza, but I didn’t really want to go inside and get it for him, so I decided to give him some money and let him get it himself. He came back with the slice of pizza on a plate, on a tray, with the right change and absolutely beaming and he talked about it for days.

Re: What kids told us about how to get them off their phones

#80

Post by cameldrv »

lm28469 wrote: post #51
Jyaif wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your testimony is quite literally survivor bias. What would not be survivor bias is you telling us what happened to the kids around you.

Literally nothing ? because statistically speaking they virtually all survived. And of the ones that did not survive the extreme vast majority didn't die because they were "playing outside"

I completely agree. That said when I was a kid there was always a kid in class with a cast or a sling for their collar bone, and these days you hardly ever see it.
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