UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Laptops?
WhatsApp lowers age limit to 13 in UK
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Laptops?
spitfire
Walty McWaltface
Hardly any of the kids in MiniFire's school could afford laptops. And the schools can't afford to hand them out so they use their mum or dad's phone if they don't have one themselves.
spitfire
Walty McWaltface
There are loads of them around, no one seems to get them though that I can see. It's easier just to give the sprog an old banger from the tech box.
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existentialist
Tired and unemotional
It's got to be pretty tough for kids whose parents are taking a firm line on this stuff. The trouble is that the corporates who run these sites clearly don't take the responsibility of operating them seriously - Facebook has long allegedly had a minimum age limit of 13, which is honoured more in the breach than the observance, which makes it hard for parents to deal with the "WHY can't I be on Facebook, all my friends are...?" question. And there is a constant stream of reports to suggest that the algorithms on which these places operate don't go anywhere NEAR far enough to protect children from harmful content and individuals, nor to provide effective and swift action when bad things do happen.
girasol
Addicted to handstands!
That's already available. We use it for my gd tablet.
My gd's cousin is 9!!!! she has an iphone with whatsapp - which she says she only communicates with her contacts, so she seems to have some understanding. But through her, my granddaughter is getting exposed to a lot more she needs to be seeing at her age, and wanting an iphone. My gd is 8 years old.
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spitfire
Walty McWaltface
Also you can lock down iPhones with age restrictions to a pretty good extent but you do need a bit of tech nouse.
girasol
Addicted to handstands!
To be fair, Facebook is no longer the issue. Kids don't use it anymore.
girasol
Addicted to handstands!
Don't worry, they won't get banned!!! Imagine, as if!
One thing though, you can buy laptops and tablets for a less than some smartphones.
Sweet FA
✪ Three rounds Lord, in my .44 ✪
We do and have done for a while - from EY up.
WhatsApp is the platform of choice for comms/bullying amongst the primary aged ime. tiktok and snapchat are around but not as prevalent - I guess they take off more in KS3. Smartphones and online bullying starts (ime) from Y3 (7/8yo), hots up by Y5 (9/10) and by Y6 (10/11), most have got smartphones and a significant amount bring phones to school.
This can be done with iPhone also.
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
That was just the example I have any knowledge of. I guess it's the same with the newer platforms...
SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
Even if whatsapp is set to contacts only, the amount of strife we see as a result of bullying on whatsapp, people being kicked out of groups etc is ridiculous.
Recently we had a mini-epidemic of kids posting videos of fights online. Creating the videos seemed to be the only pretext for the fights happening in the first place. The worst was multiple kids all attacking one child.
When I was a kid there were bullies and nasty pieces of work but you could just walk away from them. They didn't have this entire system for dragging everyone else down to the same level. And the troubled kids didn't have this massive pressure to escalate, this hellish loop of reinforcement.
And the phones are everywhere, and always. Maybe an adult or a peer can get through to a kid, speak to them as a known and trusted person, get them to think about something long enough to make a better decision about one thing on one day. But then suddenly the adult or the friend is somewhere else but the phone is still there. Even most adults, given the choice between thinking long and hard about something they need to figure out or going straight to the thing that does the thinking for you, often make the wrong call. Teenagers don't stand a chance. And fucking hell, don't these tech companies know it.
Recently we had a mini-epidemic of kids posting videos of fights online. Creating the videos seemed to be the only pretext for the fights happening in the first place. The worst was multiple kids all attacking one child.
When I was a kid there were bullies and nasty pieces of work but you could just walk away from them. They didn't have this entire system for dragging everyone else down to the same level. And the troubled kids didn't have this massive pressure to escalate, this hellish loop of reinforcement.
And the phones are everywhere, and always. Maybe an adult or a peer can get through to a kid, speak to them as a known and trusted person, get them to think about something long enough to make a better decision about one thing on one day. But then suddenly the adult or the friend is somewhere else but the phone is still there. Even most adults, given the choice between thinking long and hard about something they need to figure out or going straight to the thing that does the thinking for you, often make the wrong call. Teenagers don't stand a chance. And fucking hell, don't these tech companies know it.
AverageJoe
...
Oh come on. Technology will always advance. And it's the parents job, not the kids, to ensure that the correct settings are put onto their phones. If you can't be arsed as a parent to do this then yes, you're allowing your offspring to unlimitee exposure to All Kinds Of Shit.
And WhatsApp isn't even really part of the problem.
You want programs where can send dodgy stuff that deletes after 30 seconds - it's out there, but once seen, can't be unseen.
You want apps that invade your privacy - it's out there. Tik Tok, Instagram, Kik, Telegram... There are so many.
And even if your offspring don't have a phone or access to this, you be as sure as shit that the "naughtiest kid in the class" TM does. And will be sharing their phone screen with your kids in the playground.
Tl:dr Technology moves fast. Responsible parents move faster.
And WhatsApp isn't even really part of the problem.
You want programs where can send dodgy stuff that deletes after 30 seconds - it's out there, but once seen, can't be unseen.
You want apps that invade your privacy - it's out there. Tik Tok, Instagram, Kik, Telegram... There are so many.
And even if your offspring don't have a phone or access to this, you be as sure as shit that the "naughtiest kid in the class" TM does. And will be sharing their phone screen with your kids in the playground.
Tl:dr Technology moves fast. Responsible parents move faster.
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mojo pixy
...שלא נמצא בשמאל
Yeah that's me and it's an ongoing game of see how long I can hold out. Son's got a Nokia brick so he can call and text, I've told him the earliest he's getting a smartphone is 16 but obviously every few weeks it flares up when he tells me 'everyone else has one', so I tell him he can have any phone he wants when he's paying his own bill. So now he wants a job. Sadly he's only 11 so it'll be a while
We do have a decent computer for homework etc and he plays Fortnite and FIFA with his mates on a PS5, so he's not exactly in the stone age. But yeah, I am shamelessly that parent and I can't see what could budge me tbh.
But we'll see.
Fortnite. Where you can talk to whoever.
girasol
Addicted to handstands!
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Back in the day this caused huge rows on here, which you probably remember.How many kids do you have AverageJoe? I can smell the ignorant, naive, "judgementality" from here.
AverageJoe
...
Two. 13 and 15. What about you?How many kids do you have AverageJoe? I can smell the ignorant, naive, "judgementality" from here.
I'm right in the middle of this.
Smell away.
There is a twist on this though. When my son plays Fortnite when I have contact I can literally see and hear all conversations that are happening and can pull him up on stuff in real time. Which in a sense is better than just ‘don’t talk to strangers’ and sending us on our way as happened when I was his age.
AverageJoe
...
Playing online games like this can be way way worse. Ted once had some Russian guy join their group when they were playing. When he heard the voice he literally turned it off because he didn't know who that was.
You can do settings so they can only talk to friends or friends of friends. Of course that depends on who they make as ‘friends’.
I monitor it like fuck though without him even knowing I am. Just permanent questioning in conversation.
I’d rather that than it all be secret else he be in trouble. That’s the wrong way in my view.
AverageJoe
...
Again, it's about parenting moving faster.
I wasn't fast enough that time because I didn't really understand that the Xbox could do that. But I learned. And that's what parents have to do.
WhatsApp is the least of our offsprings problems these days. And that's not to belittle it. The biggest problem to securing your child's internet security is sadly... other kids whose parents don't pay the same attention.
You can do your best, but if they aren't, then your kid is going to see that other kids screen.
Fair point. I know my ex is on the ball because he calls me all the time and all I hear is, “who are you talking to”
RevolutionSound
Well-Known Member
Some SEN kids rely on their smartphones to have any social contact with their peers. It's not as cut and dried as you might think.
Yes technology puts your kids at greater risk yada yada but it also puts abusers of greater risk of being caught. Not like the days when they had to go to Amsterdam for VHS anymore. People are watching.
Thora
Differently Ethical
Despite an apparent 'no phones' policy at my kid's secondary school, they do seem to be sometimes (often - depending on how many supply teachers or TAs are trying to supervise them that day) be instructed to do Dr Frost or Seneca during the school day. No kid is taking a laptop to school but they can all pull phones out of their pockets.
It is really hard to hold out when the school expectation is that all kids have a smartphone.
ETA - and not just learning apps or websites, all their timetables and homework diaries are on various apps too.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
That's shit. I've only seen primary (not as a teacher), but there they had ipads and classroom PCs. I also thought low cost chromebooks were being used for this.
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