As if fifteen year olds are buying phones themselves. Discussing this was a waste of time even before you consider that parents need to do some parenting and social networks need some regulation.
Even if they have to pay it themselves, they can still ask their parents to buy/order it for them and just give them the money. That’s what I did at that age anyway because ordering them online is cheaper and you have more choice.
Shhh, don’t tell the out of touch politicians that teenagers are not exactly known for their care about if something is against the rules or not.
It is more fun to watch them be shocked on TV when they can’t explain why their ideas don’t work.
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Unfortunately, parents aren’t always able to do their parenting very well and need their own guidance.
Not overusing screens was a constant when I was a kid decades ago and it doesn’t take a genius or even paying much attention to notice the effect it and social media has on kids.
‘Make it illegal’ is always a cheaper option ‘than spend money to implement a solution that will actually work.’
Are any under 16 buying the phones themselves? With the price of phones now I’d guess for the vast majority it is the parents themselves buy it for their kids.
At that point it’s for the parents to decide for themselves
You can still buy perfectly good phones for 1-200€ but yeah the blame still mostly lies with the parents imo.
The “blame” lies with no one except for the big social media megacorporations that develop and distribute addictive apps. Phone use by teenagers, or anyone else, is not intrinsically connected to any adverse effects. Rather, negative health consequences for children are the result of an unchecked, raging hypercapitalism.
Yes and no. I agree we should regulate these companies and make them partially responsible for the harm they cause, but you cant sue a knife company if your kid stabs someone. Its your responsibility to make sure your kids dont fall into the traps that exist in our world.
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Or how about you legislate for parental controls on Smartphones.
You know, like how any desktop or laptop has them?
How are you going to enforce this law? Because parents will still buy their kids smartphones. Are you going to have the police arresting under 16s and confiscating their phones?
Some laws have little to no thought put into. This is one of them. Not only is this unnecessary but it would create more technological waste.
UK you’re drunk, go home.
These guys live on an island.
Old mental people who have zero idea about modern world. What about investing into education and prevention?
Lol who is downvoting you? I get that Lemmy is generally left-leaning but come on!! All drugs should be legal and taxed , all information should be free ! A phone is a cheaper computer! Stop giving more power to governments! Free the people! — edit before the downvotes come my way: why do I bring up drugs ? Politicians & police are also the ones benefiting from negotiating with dealers. Does not matter which country you live in.
More and more aspects of life require an app or at least a smartphone (QR codes). That already excludes older people from some aspects of daily life. Let’s do the same for kids!
Politicians should do their jobs and regulate tech and social media not ban useful devices.
Power to young people. Politicians who propose things like this, may you lose all elections.
If you are a teenager, I am so sorry for my fellow adults who think we have any business deciding how you guys live your lives. I assure you we are not all like this.
Anyone else notice how insane expensive phones have gotten in the last couple of years?
No? The spectrum just got way wider. you can still buy 150$ phone, no problemo, its just gonna be a piece of junk. But same was true 10 years.
Only thing that changed is that back in the day 300 - 400 phones gave you 90% of the experience of the 800 - 1000 phones. Thats different now.
Well your second paragraph is the meat of what I mean. A $300 phone now is shit, whereas 5 years ago you could get a decent one. You gotta get to the $600+ (Canadian) to find anything that’s decent now
NaNnY sTaTe!!1!11!!!
