Although this isn’t strictly related to privacy, I think a lot of the reasons why age verification is running rampant is because of parents not taking care of their childrens’ internet usage.
Besides entering their parents’ credit card information or email address on sketchy websites, the biggest scare for me is that they are also being targeted by advertising. I haven’t really heard of anyone successfully monitoring their children without them circumventing parental controls.
I personally would want my child to know the tech they’re holding and learn how to use it safely. This can only be done by not leaving them alone with an iPad, but it seems like most parents are too busy or simply don’t care enough to understand the wider societal consequences of doing so
Perhaps a more accurate adjective that at this point must be associated with all legal guardians is irresponsible. Obviously not every parent is like this but more than enough for one to reasonably generalize. I’m going to start calling them irresponsible parents. We all should to get any guilt we can impose on them to better themselves for the sake of their offspring(s).
To make them lifelong customers if you can get them associated with a particular brand and product.
Not saying this is not needed but step one is education them at home and building trust between/in the family. This would also mean being more involved in their children’s lives to guide them through childhood and adolescence even with all the mistakes they will make. Control is never the answer if good habits and family dynamic is not set right early on.
There can be reasonable rationales for why one is too busy but that doesn’t make not be an irresponsible person. Still your job to do what you need to do.
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This is just general commentary on the matter. Nothing is personally meant on anyone.
I think this is too much. I’m a teacher and I have contact with parents and students. I would say that in many cases parents spend too much time working and end up exhausted to the point where they can’t properly attend to their own children.
True, but then that also circles back to you shouldn’t give your child an internet connected device if not one that you won’t be using it’s parental controls functionality.
At this point rather than this bs chat control and age verification laws, there should be laws mandating parents that if their children is going to have and/or use internet connected devices, monitor them by any necessary means, which includes but not limited to parental control functionality, looking at them physically while they use it and more.
It never is and should not be the government’s job because of idk irresponsible parents at this point sigh but if they should go this way, this is it, affect the parties that are causing the harm and not everyone in the process. I think muta puts it very well when he says the analogy along the lines of "you dont throw the baby in the bathwater (just because you know, this stuff happens) "
How is that not their own fault when they chose to have children without ensuring of their abilities to attend to them until they at least become adults?
I don’t mean to unnecessarily be a contrarian here for the sake of it. Truly.
But if this is the case, and even I know this is the case for the most part - perhaps the more rational course of action is to not have children or postpone your parenthood.
I vehemently disagree with you here. It will all come down to upbringing and education at home for how a child is. A reflection of this along with quality and hopefully secular education is how you more likely than not raise a productive and an intelligent person with critical thinking skills.
Here’s an undeniable fact of humanity. People are not rational. They never have been, and they never will be. Some people will just have kids, and it’s not always planned. You can scoff if you want, but it won’t change how people are.
Although, with how declining birth rates are going, maybe humanity isn’t completely irrational.
Private schools that cater to the 1% often advertise their no technology approach. For everyone else, it’s really not that simple unless you’re homeschooling. Not everyone can do that.
Tech Companies have wormed their way into schools. Hell, school-mandated iPads and Chromebooks are a thing.
How do you build good and healthy habits if they’ve already spent hours on a device before they’re even home? That’s already over the limit the article was talking about. Should you ban them from using electronics at home after the school?
What would that do to their social lives?
Frankly, it’s systemic.
The majority of people want what’s best for their children, and shaming them for struggling does not help.
Yes, I am aware. I was only pointing out the real problem. What I said can also be seen as a solution but that won’t change how people behave. The problems will keep existing even though we have a solution. That’s also what I was trying to say/imply and get people to infer.
I know. My argument was also meant to shed light on the systemic issues at play here. Perhaps I should have been clearer.
I would argue that’s because schools and the education system also does not prioritize what they teach children. I’d rather kids learn about open tech and establish better digital presence than being raised in the Google/big tech ecosystem. In other words, schools should teach tech differently too with at least desktop Linux in the formal education setting and everything else at home/elsewhere/other programs. There is so much to learn everyday and not everything can be taught. But perhaps what should be taught needs to change too if you want children growing up to learn the right things and not just learn what everyone is doing just because everyone is doing it (or for the sake of seeing it as a means to an end).
They should not be spending that much time on a device at school either. Teaching some things and doing some things the old school way to establish the fundamentals of the subject matter is important. But sure, after a certain age - tech use can responsibly increase.
Absolutely not. But parents should teach them how to use other tech equally responsibly to keep learning of different things.
Ah, yes - I agree here. I didn’t see this when I started typing my comment so I said the same above.
Why must one by default think of them being called irresponsible a bad thing? It should rather be taken as a realization that they are not doing as good of a job they ought to be. I understand raising a child takes a village. It also takes at-least a two person income household to raise them. But that’s where the issue becomes. Not enough resources from their parents because they need to make enough for all to live. Some things will fall through the cracks but more and more things are falling without regard. And that’s what’s irresponsible.
But also brings me back to the same point. Not being rational enough and still having kids when you know or don’t have the foresight to see or realize that the resources you may be able to gather in the future simply may not be enough. Resources here is time and money, both. You can’t have enough of one without the other.
If one wants to keep breaking down for the reasons for this, you’ll end up blaming the country’s political and economic systems among other institutions. So I guess, it’s just a bad way to live and do things then. Then the real question is, how and what do we do to “fix” or fix it?
A “dystopian” way to fix or “fix” this to mandate all would be or wanna be parents to get certified in how to be parents. You have to get certified for all sorts of things in your life, raising a child should be among those teachings every person should go through before having children. No idea sounds good when its unprecedented. I’m not saying this is the best option. But it is an option if you independently think of it from any established ideology.
Parents, teachers, schools, governments, those corporations making profits and society as a whole, in short everyone must have some responsibility. Single parent can’t be sole source of income these days.
Initially kids start using parent’s phone for academic(homework, assignments, lectures, discussion etc) and non-academic(like youtube) → Since kids are using their phones all time parents don’t get to use it when needed → Eventually kids get their own device, then you where it’ll end.
Tech corps do use targeted advertising but algorithms pushing irrelevant content and ads, which are worse than former. Like corps saying - Use AI else you’ll be left behind.
How many of you are seeing irrelevant recommendations despite customizing not recommended or see fewer ads/posts like this?
My neighbor’s kid is 3yo. They get their own screen time and heavily policed. I play with them everyday. They don’t share their toys easily but the chances are 50-50. When they’re using phones no words get inside their head and if I pull the phone from them playfully, I saw rage equivalent to teen. Not from privacy POV - I can bet most of us behave(d) similarly(in past/present) when engaged with phone but the reaction is different with other things.
All parents treasure their kids and some turn blind when kids do something wrong thinking scolding them will create trauma for the kids.
I don’t know if all of you work or have children, but work can get complicated, a loved one can become dependent, etc. In some countries labor legislation protects workers better, but in almost all of them, as a general rule, working hours don’t decrease despite having the highest levels of productivity in human history. Work and life in cities have become frenetic. An 8-hour workday (if you’re lucky), you have to commute to work which can be 30 minutes or 1 hour away, increasingly poor diet, fewer hours of sleep, worse mental health, etc.
Pointing out individual irresponsibilities isn’t entirely wrong, but it’s like blaming someone for using Google. Google engages in monopolistic practices to get people to use its service. We need to prevent monopolies so that company doesn’t consume the market. Regulation.
TikTok and all social media, as well as the entire marketing industry, do everything possible to make us spend as much time as possible in front of our phones with practices that could even be called mind control. What is the individual against the market that drives you to consume and produce? Of course, there’s hope, one can always consciously exit the cycle (or be pulled out of it).
And may be this is one of the systemic problems I alluded to.
Hey, you used the word too. What else else would you call it? Is there another better or a more accurate adjective you want others to rather use?
At-least being mindful and knowledgeable of this should give you urgency that perhaps what you’re engaging in is a harmful addictive behavior that will not yield to anything good. People don’t take it seriously because you don’t see the harm right away or in full force. People lose their heads when planes crash into buildings but don’t when significantly more people die in hospital beds everyday and quietly become a statistic. 9/11 happened in one day. Where was an equivalent public outcry (and for the length for which it lasted for 9/11) when 9/11 was happening everyday for months during the pandemic? Point is, people have the power to do better for themselves but everyday choose not to. Yes, it may be addiction. But then that’s another systemic but more of an ideological issue to resolve.
Also, when I say irresponsible - there are always degrees to which a parent can be that. If they let children go to bed late after eating ice cream and not brushing their teeth, that’s irresponsible too. But if it happens to happen rarely, of course its okay. it happens. Such is life. So, there’s a spectrum for irresponsibility but it is nonetheless irresponsible.
The word is used correctly, I simply want to point out that people don’t have either the time or the energy to be responsible and rational. Being rational requires time. Properly educating your children in knowledge, habits and emotions does too.
Unfortunately this, to a certain extent, has become a privilege.
Then do not have children early when you have not had the time to know who you are and how rationally you can be as a person and a parent for the next 18 years at the very least. Having children when you want to without thinking or knowing or realizing how you’ll be as a person and for your child is what’s irresponsible too. Being prepared, financially, socially, personally are all factors any responsible person takes into account. Nothing I am saying here is a novel thing or an unprecedented way to looking at things.
So that’s the other non parent related irresponsibility I am referring to as well.
Almost all the adults in the world around children model the behaviour of prioritising screens over surroundings. It’s strange to single out parents as a group to blame when kids will constantly see adults on screens everywhere they go.
In the research article, I found it strange this was skimmed over in their conclusions:
The researchers found that infant screen time was significantly associated with accelerated maturation of the visual–cognitive control network in the brain.
Isn’t that something positive, or have I misunderstood ‘maturation’ here?
Also here:
Children whose parents frequently read to them at age three showed a weakened link between screen time and altered brain development, meaning active engagement and enrichment brought by reading to children and asking them questions about the books shared with them helps foster better emotional management, language skills, and, in the case of the latest study, is likely to help their brains develop at a consistent, healthy rate across various cognitive areas.
Is all ‘altered brain development’ associated with screen time negative? Also, doesn’t that mean that reading is always good and should be done in conjunction with other activities, rather than replace any of them, as the article seems to suggest in the conclusion?
As for parenting and screens, these things may help:
have WiFi free zones in the house, bedrooms in particular
make screen time a living room experience only
parental controls (for time management) may work will very small kids, but don’t fall into the trap of spying on your kids with technology
it’s much easier to negotiate a long established rule than it is to try to set boundaries where there were none before
I see hardcore ‘no screens’ environments and government/company age verification as not properly preparing kids for the real world. Discussions about creating accounts and using devices and platforms are probably best done in the form of negotiations, with some things totally off limits, and others becoming available as kids grow up.
I’ve skimmed through theoriginal research paper and I guess ‘maturation’ is detrimental. What I find missing in the research paper cited in the article is that in their discussion of the field, there is no mention of research on positive impacts of screen time, nor do the researchers make a distinction (as far as I can tell) between passive vs active use of screens. It’s not clear to me if for this particular research, watching TV is included in screen time, for example.
Children’s relationship with screens has undergone a remarkable transformation. In the 1970s and 1980s, screen time primarily involved passive television viewing at scheduled times. Fast forward to 2025, and we’ve witnessed what researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute call a “fundamental shift in engagement patterns.” Today’s children don’t just consume content—they create it, share it, and interact with it across multiple platforms simultaneously.
“We’ve moved from asking whether screen time is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ to recognizing that this framing itself is obsolete,” explains Dr. Alicia Montgomery, developmental psychologist at the University of Michigan. “The more relevant questions involve how, when, and what type of digital engagement children experience.”
[….]
A 2022 study from the Urban Institute documented how these disparities manifest: children from lower-income households were three times more likely to use technology primarily for passive entertainment rather than interactive or educational purposes compared to their more affluent peers. This difference wasn’t explained by parental attitudes but rather by resources, working conditions, and support systems.
[….]
The evidence regarding screens’ impact on cognitive development presents a complex picture that defies simple conclusions. Executive function—the set of mental skills including working memory, flexible thinking, and self-control—appears particularly susceptible to both benefits and harms from digital engagement.
People make irrational decisions all the time and I don’t mean small ones, but big decisions like marriage. Half of all marriages in the US fail in the end yet people continue to marry.
Even those that did have a well thought out plan struggle to maintain the principles they originally laid out. It’s a journey - you don’t exactly know how it’s going to be until you actually do it.
