[TriEmbed] iPhone 6

[Martin Brooke]

As a father of two teens who have had smartphones (and a bit of a hellion
in my youth).  I think that it depends on the individual kid and their
friend group.

If you think that no phone/ no car/ no freedom will keep you kids safe you
are not being practical.  They will find a way if they become inclined, and
just hate you for trying to prevent them.  Providing access but with clear
rules and limits seems to be the best policy.  You must also set a good
example.  If you are on your phone all the time running up huge phone bills
and think your kids will not notice and want to emulate you that is not
practical.

For younger kids a burner phone is a good start, like training wheels, but
you should expect that peer pressure and seeing how society works will push
you into the real phone world eventually.

Having a limit on how much the evil phone companies will let them spend is
a good idea, and would probably be good for most of us, if you ever got
burned with overseas phone charges or data overages you know what I mean.
I personally think all phone games are a terrible idea.  But once again we
are wasting our time fighting them.  Limits on budget per month help with
the nasty in game purchases while they learn the ropes.  Probably not a
good idea to give kids the apple ID or amazon password, although if they
are smart they will get it somehow. One of mine, when challenged to by a
cyber security teacher, hacked the teacher's facebook account and posted
messages in their name.  Lets face it a smart kid can learn how to hack
most of our devices unless we are (unrealistically) vigilant.  The best
attitude is to assume all of your accounts are hackable and may already be
hacked.

I think falling in with a bad friend group is another problem.  I don't
know what you can do about that except move.  Although I do think kids with
the predilection will fall in with like groups wherever you go.  This is
probably more of a problem than any phone will ever be.  We chose to live
out of town a ways and fairly far from our kids school to make the access
to friend groups more controllable.  But I am under no illusions that that
will always work.

Even after all you might do, some folks are just more inclined to be
trouble than others.  You might have no trouble at all with one teen and
all sorts with a sibling.  It does seem that if they can keep from harming
themselves too badly before they are 35 then they might straighten out by
then!







On Sat, Nov 19, 2016 at 1:00 PM, <triembed-request at triembed.org> wrote:

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>    1. Re: TriEmbed Digest, Vol 42, Issue 7 (Alex Davis)
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> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Alex Davis <alexd at matrixwide.com>
> To: triembed at triembed.org
> Cc:
> Date: Fri, 18 Nov 2016 13:11:03 -0500
> Subject: Re: [TriEmbed] TriEmbed Digest, Vol 42, Issue 7
> >
> > In all honesty, I would HIGHLY recommend you not supply a smart phone to
> any child you care about.
> >
> > My expertise is in cyber security, and as the parent of a HS freshman
> girl I can testify that the biggest mistake of my entire life so far was
> that damn phone. It will expose your child to unprecedented levels of
> pornography, predators, and bullies. The literally dozens of means it
> provides for children to engage in inappropriate activities is simply too
> much for parents to monitor. It will enable incredible levels of deception
> and hiding that you can never totally uncover. Even very good, disciplined
> children will be changed to some degree through peer pressure once this
> device is in their possession.
> >
> > I have taken the phone, but too late. If you want to get acquainted with
> local law enforcement, go ahead, but I can guarantee her life will be
> diminished by the device, not enhanced by it.
>
>
> For a teen, I suggest looking for a tracfone with 3x minutes, and buy a
> 400 minute, 1 year card. That is more than enough minutes for a teen to
> call you (and you call them), and for them to occasionally call and text
> their friends (which they will do). Per call/text it is expensive, but
> overall it is very cheap as it will last the whole year and cost much less
> per year, vs. >= $35/mo plus taxes and fees.
>
> In my opinion as a parent of teens, nothing good can come from providing a
> teenager with a smartphone. At the least, it is a waste of money and a
> source of endless distraction, and at worse it is a life-runiner.
>
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