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Parents turn to smartwatches for their children amid global phone screen-time pushback
(www.straitstimes.com)
this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2025
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Sure, and if that's what they want, I don't see an issue with it. I'm not saying phones/smart watches are bad, I'm saying that the reasons so many people get them (to track their kids) are bad.
A parent/child relationship should be based on trust, and that goes both ways. Remember, we're not raising them to just shift subservience to you onto some other entity (e.g. government), we're raising kids to think and act on their own, and they need some level of independence for that to happen. They'll fail, and hopefully the consequences are severe enough to teach them before failure has more severe consequences.
If they're always tethered to their parents via some tracking device, when will that happen? If they never take off the training wheels or mommy/daddy always catches them before they fall, when will they learn on ride on their own?
Fail early, and fail often. That's how we learn, and we shouldn't rob our kids of that.
That should go without saying for any opinion.
That said, people are generally pretty similar from place to place. Some of the nicest people live in some of the worst places. Kids aren't randomly getting molested in back alleys, most of that happens with family members and close relatives.
Instead of tracking them, consider teaching them what to look out for. Generally speaking, if they keep to themselves and stay with friends, people will leave them alone. Criminals just don't want to mess with kids.
You too. ๐