I think that smartphones should be banned during school, but in the way that you can bring them to school, put them in some soundproof box, then take them out after the lessons are over. There is no reason to have a phone during the lessons, but coordinating with children in the afternoon is useful. Also, if my kids go to some activity right after school (without going home first), if they were not allowed to bring the phone to school, it means they also can’t have it at the afternoon activity.
The hard problem is, how do you differentially get the screen time you want? At some point yes you want to impose a hard cap, but if I noticed my children doing hacking things, writing programs, messing with hardware, or playing games in a way that involved deliberate practice, or otherwise making good use, I would be totally fine with that up to many hours per day. The things they would naturally do with the screens? Largely not so much.
I think that if you teach your children how to use the computer while they are too young to install their own software, you will give them good habits. It is worse if they get their first computer advice from their classmates, because that will probably be about the things you don’t want them to do.
My kids started at kindergarten age with Tux Paint, and later with other graphical programs (they both love to paint, both on paper and in computer). There was a time when they watched idiotic movies on YouTube, but then they stopped doing that (I am not sure why; maybe it simply got boring) and moved on to Pocket Platformer, Inkscape, and recently Scratch. They haven’t discovered social networks yet.
With time, first we didn’t have any limits, the kids got bored after a while. But then the time spent at the screen kept increasing, so we set a limit to one hour a day. That sometimes seemed like not enough, especially during weekends, so after a few experiments, we ended up with an “economy” where the kids get one hour a day for free, and can gain extra time by playing outside or helping at home.
I think my kids are probably on a good way to become hackers. I have friends who didn’t let their kids use the computer until they were about nine years old (which is when they started having computer science lessons at school). Now, one friend’s child only plays Minecraft, the other friend’s child only plays Roblox, and there is no way to convince them to use the computer for any other purpose. Who knows, they may surprise me later.
When my kids are old enough to get smartphones, I probably won’t allow them to install games or social networks there. I think it is better to do there things on the computer, because when you walk away from the computer it is over, and a turned-off computer cannot bother you with notifications.
I think that smartphones should be banned during school, but in the way that you can bring them to school, put them in some soundproof box, then take them out after the lessons are over. There is no reason to have a phone during the lessons, but coordinating with children in the afternoon is useful. Also, if my kids go to some activity right after school (without going home first), if they were not allowed to bring the phone to school, it means they also can’t have it at the afternoon activity.
I think that if you teach your children how to use the computer while they are too young to install their own software, you will give them good habits. It is worse if they get their first computer advice from their classmates, because that will probably be about the things you don’t want them to do.
My kids started at kindergarten age with Tux Paint, and later with other graphical programs (they both love to paint, both on paper and in computer). There was a time when they watched idiotic movies on YouTube, but then they stopped doing that (I am not sure why; maybe it simply got boring) and moved on to Pocket Platformer, Inkscape, and recently Scratch. They haven’t discovered social networks yet.
With time, first we didn’t have any limits, the kids got bored after a while. But then the time spent at the screen kept increasing, so we set a limit to one hour a day. That sometimes seemed like not enough, especially during weekends, so after a few experiments, we ended up with an “economy” where the kids get one hour a day for free, and can gain extra time by playing outside or helping at home.
I think my kids are probably on a good way to become hackers. I have friends who didn’t let their kids use the computer until they were about nine years old (which is when they started having computer science lessons at school). Now, one friend’s child only plays Minecraft, the other friend’s child only plays Roblox, and there is no way to convince them to use the computer for any other purpose. Who knows, they may surprise me later.
When my kids are old enough to get smartphones, I probably won’t allow them to install games or social networks there. I think it is better to do there things on the computer, because when you walk away from the computer it is over, and a turned-off computer cannot bother you with notifications.