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The Issue
Smartphones and Generative AI are amazing technologies that have totally reshaped the world in the way we live and function in a POSITIVE way. However, the negative impacts of the algorithms on many social media platforms have created an addiction for many, most concerning of all, CHILDREN. If there was a chemically addictive drug in the pockets of children, and no one was doing anything about it, it would create an unprecedented level of outrage and concern.
On the Government of Canada website, a child is described as a human being below the age of 18. Stated in the "Rights of Children" -under the guiding principles, "Best Interests of the Child", Article 3 states "This principle places the best interests of children as the primary concern in making decisions that may affect them. All adults, including those who are involved in making decisions related to budgets, policy and the law, should do what is best for children. When adults make decisions, they should think about how their decisions will affect children."
Click here to read more: Rights of children - Canada.ca
We need to encourage parents, grandparents, guardians, teachers, and governments to follow the guiding principles and start to eliminate children's internet access on portable electronic devices 24/7/365.
There are mulitple resources to accomplish what smartphones currently do, without internet access. Old style flip phones would seem to be the most obvious, as a good visual for enforcement of all kinds, similar to witnessing a child drinking a bottle of whisky, or smoking a joint.
Like alcohol, children should not be allowed to purchase or possess a smartphone until 18 years of age.
14 is too young, at 16 it would not be wise to hand them a major distraction while learning to drive. At 18 they are adults, and have the lawful right to do as they please.
Smartphone Free Childhood
Imagination In Action
Just Imagine IF
Children were not allowed to have access to internet on portable electronic devices (namely Smartphones), and were not allowed to purchase or possess a smartphone until the age of 18 (like alcohol), but were allowed to have flip phones with no data capabilities it could and probably would :
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Have the same features as a smartphone without internet access
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Be a good visual for enforcement, law, teachers, and others
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Create one less parenting decision to make and one less child-parent battle to have when the parent can simply state, “We cannot get you a smartphone, it is against the law “
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Cause children to learn an extremely valuable lesson. They FIRST should learn how to survive manually before the use of a smartphone. They would learn how to figure some things out for themselves, a major life skill, without watching a Youtube video.
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Be the norm for all Canadian children in possibly 6 years or so, and maybe the issue would end, and the adults would have to “fend for themselves” ha ha.
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Decrease the amount of people who do dangerous and crazy things and post them on social media sites to get “all the likes” which encourages other youngsters to do things they normally wouldn’t do, in an effort to get MORE likes than others, which seems to have become some type of contest.
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Make it a little more difficult to contact the drug dealers hiding on the current social media sites. They would have to have a phone number.
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Be removed from the schools, which could have the potential to bring back the public schools to a greater level of acceptance
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Reduce the amount of time and money utilized by schools dealing with the addiction, parents dealing with the addiction, and law enforcement chasing predators and the like, our governments dealing with social media conglomerates who have more money than countries, as well as encourage our governments from talking and talking and talking about it, and do something so we can move on a little farther down the line.
If we don't do something soon, we will continue to raise many children who will be anxious, depressed, and some suicidal, who will not know what is true or false as they will believe everything Generative AI spits out at them, as they are entering adulthood.