Anonymous wrote:My kids are too young to be accessing the internet on their own and don’t have devices, but this article is really scaring me. My oldest is 10 and some of her friends have phones, and play Roblox. I am considering getting her a phone next year but feel like I have so much work to do to prepare.

One good reason to wait for a phone is that when middle school starts they may end up finding the other phone-free kids and ultimately find the Tiktok addicted ones boring to hang out with. We live really near school so can end up being a hang out house. The dynamic I overhear is so different with the phone group than the non phone group.

Like think about when you're hanging out with people who are all on their phones. Not fun! - I type on my phone, but at least I'm home alone.

Anonymous wrote:I feel that it must be hard to determine the right age for kids to have phones and how much monitoring you should do as a parent.

My mom used to read my diary and when I found out I felt horribly betrayed. Obviously this isn’t the same thing but similar, how do you build trust but also keep your kid safe?

My oldest is still in middle school but so far they know that anything they do on any device can be viewed by parents (their own and their friends) and has the potential to be read by anyone in the world. We were very upfront that we would be checking.

We also gave them paper journals that have locks and we don't read them.

I feel that it must be hard to determine the right age for kids to have phones and how much monitoring you should do as a parent.

My mom used to read my diary and when I found out I felt horribly betrayed. Obviously this isn’t the same thing but similar, how do you build trust but also keep your kid safe?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The internet is not a safe place for children. Congress must act to regulate it now.

Social media is toxic.

True. And more than half the States Attorney Generals are suing the social media companies based on 2 premises:

- social media is intentionally made to be addicting and,

- evidence shows social media is harmful to children.

Try pointing that out on DCUM though, and you will be attacked by defensive mommies who have already given their children smart phones with open access to any social media they want.

I gave my child a smartphone for what I thought were benign reasons, and I absolutely regret it. I would like to see them banned for kids under a certain age. I also hope the AGs are successful.

This is truly horrifying and beyond my worst fears.

I can add anecdotally that my 12-year-old was scammed out of money in a scam that started on Snapchat and it all happened in a matter of hours (gave away birthday gift cards). I know it could've been so much worse, and the violation of trust and extortion bothered my child so much that my child doesn't want a phone anymore (and I don't want them to have one anymore). We think our kids need phones, and there are nice features like GPS tracking, and they can reach us when they need something, but our generation got along fine without phones for a long time, and our kids don't need phones or social media. They need more training and more trusted adults they can go to and talk. They need to be taught about the dangers of social media and the internet before they ever get access to a phone or unsupervised access to the internet. I don't want to read about more teen suicides.

Anonymous wrote:This article is horrifying, specifically calls out grooming kids online including on Roblox. All parents whose kids have access to the internet should read- please be aware that this is becoming increasingly common. (Gift link below).

https://wapo.st/4cb7bi9

I blame the parents.

Anonymous wrote:My kids are too young to be accessing the internet on their own and don’t have devices, but this article is really scaring me. My oldest is 10 and some of her friends have phones, and play Roblox. I am considering getting her a phone next year but feel like I have so much work to do to prepare.

You don’t need a phone to use Roblox. Just wifi and a Chromebook or iPad or laptop or desktop.

People can scream and squeal about “parents!!!!1122” all they want but a good number of people in that article were age 18+. Adults able to sign up on their own for their own accounts.

I don’t think there should be any chat functions, voice chat etc. in anything that’s aimed at kids. I hid the chat in Roblox on my kid’s account and check it every night and periodically while he’s playing to make sure it’s still hidden. He doesn’t seem to want to use it though so that’s good. The problem is the social media and gaming companies seem to consider you an “adult” capable of doing everything without restriction when you hit 13 years old.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The internet is not a safe place for children. Congress must act to regulate it now.

Hahaha

No parents should do their jobs.

It is not that hard.

You have an infantile understanding of the scope and scale of the problem if that's the conclusion you've reached. You're not informed enough to engage in this conversation. See your way out.

Anonymous wrote:The internet is not a safe place for children. Congress must act to regulate it now.

Hahaha

No parents should do their jobs.

It is not that hard.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The internet is not a safe place for children. Congress must act to regulate it now.

Social media is toxic.

True. And more than half the States Attorney Generals are suing the social media companies based on 2 premises:

- social media is intentionally made to be addicting and,

- evidence shows social media is harmful to children.

Try pointing that out on DCUM though, and you will be attacked by defensive mommies who have already given their children smart phones with open access to any social media they want.

It is 40 out of the 50 states:

https://www.npr.org/2023/10/24/1208219216/states-sue-meta-claiming-instagram-facebook-fueled-youth-mental-health-crisis

Their first target is: Meta.


But that does not mean Meta is the worst offender.

Anonymous wrote:The internet is not a safe place for children. Congress must act to regulate it now.

I agree but unfortunately social media companies have very deep pockets.

Anonymous wrote:At this point I'd be thrilled if most of the internet went away.

Agreed

This article made me physically nauseous.

Add one to the "the internet is net negative" column.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The internet is not a safe place for children. Congress must act to regulate it now.

Social media is toxic.

True. And more than half the States Attorney Generals are suing the social media companies based on 2 premises:

- social media is intentionally made to be addicting and,

- evidence shows social media is harmful to children.

Try pointing that out on DCUM though, and you will be attacked by defensive mommies who have already given their children smart phones with open access to any social media they want.

My son has a smartphone (he is 15) but has no social media accounts that I know of. He does a fair bit of gaming with his friends and I'm going to take his phone tonight to see what he has on there (again). I can't see how anyone would be defensive about stuff like this. The evidence is so overwhelming. Hell, adults can't handle social media much less kids.