Quote:
I'm one of those parents that give my kid access to everything. A phone is a tool. Like a knife, a gun, scissors, or anything else. You teach them how to use it and teach them the dangers and sometimes they may hurt themselves.
Many of my kid's friends have parents that sound like you. I don't mean this disparagingly... but most of my kids friends have burner phones. Multiple burner phones. Most of my kid's friend's parents believe they have awareness of what their kids are doing. They don't. Most of my kid's friend's have learned to hide or deceive their parents.
With Life360... kids these days have accepted the idea of Big Brother surveillance and that translate to being ok with the Government taking away the privacy of everyone.
The cat-and-mouse of regulating technology never ends and most parents are two steps behind the kids. I'm in technology and have worked with schools and businesses to regulate access through content filtering, IPS, device monitoring...
You can't pave every road for your child, but you can prepare them for the roads you don't expect them to travel.
I hear what you're saying, but very few kids are mature enough to handle that at a young age. And I realize it's hard, and takes diligence...but my kids are worth the effort. To me, it's like saying, There is a stack of Playboy and Penthouse magazines in the other room, dont ever look at them. Every.Single.Boy will look at them.
But whats out there on the web is way way way more dangerous than a stack of nudie mags. And the most salient point is that our kids dont have to go looking for it...it's thrown in their face continually. The material/influences come looking for them. It's really unbelievable what they come across accidentally/innocently.
I restrict my kids devices, and
then I do what you suggest. I teach them. I show them the benefits and the dangers. And when they show their mature enough to handle it, I give them more and more freedom. They earn my trust, and are rewarded. Which is how life works out in the real world.
Same way I taught gun safety, or anything along those lines. I didnt teach my 8 year old how to hunt the first time, by handing them a automatic loaded gun, with the safety off.
