Kids, Phones, Social Media
We got our 13 yo daughter her SIM card finally. Too early? Maybe (time will tell), but so many other kids seem to have gotten one at a much younger age. The other reason was the expectation that she’ll over-do/over-use whenever she gets her own phone number, and we will all take time to settle down on her usage (Time she spends? Which apps? Sharing her number with who? Learning to deal with unknown callers? Recognizing scamsters? etc). Better that the (team building) phases of ‘forming’, ‘storming’ and ‘norming’ get done long before she gets to 9 th standard, or so we hope. (I didn’t mention the ‘performing’ phase of team building because, well, she’s a teenager). That’s the plan. But as Clausewitz said, “No plan survives contact with the enemy”, so let’s see… ~~ It reminded me of this recent Australian bill to set the minimum age for social media accounts at 16. Social media companies will be expected to enforce this law. My initial reaction was that this is a...