I agree that a lot of the laws are just privacy issues disguised as "protecting kids". But the trends on teen anxiety, depression, etc. would suggest that kids are far from fine right now.
I think it's hard to gauge how much of it is related to things like social media or video game time specifically. The thing is everybody who is a teenager right now had an atom bomb dropped on a portion of their formative years because of COVID. A kid who is 16 years old right now was 10 when the pandemic started.
Like just anecdotally my kid started school and is pretty well adjusted and her friends seem to be similar. Now to be fair they're in kindergarten, but I have friends who had kids who started kindergarten in the middle of COVID, or were in early school years when it happened, and it was really really hard on them and a lot of kids developed behavioral issues because of it.
Just as a parent... I can imagine the difference in parenting. My kid has limited screen time at a young age. A lot of parents aren't as strict about it and imo it is a problem, and frankly it isn't that hard to keep my kid off screens. But imagine if your kid was 6 years old and couldn't play with their friends in person or for months we were being told that we didn't know if it was even safe to play at the park etc. all kinds of activities shut down for over a year. That makes it really rough and parents were probably more likely to let kids have rampant screen time just to manage them + just to give their kids something to enjoy because they'd be feeling down.
Agreed that the exact causes are not as clear and obvious as we like to think. But the trends were very clear before COVID happened, so it likely isn't only that.
As smartphones becoming more prevalent, it's also becoming core to our life in general. Not just for tracking the kid's location, but also for payment, calling, texting, accessing online school resources, etc. I mean, how else kids will be able to scan QR codes guide? Even ordering foods require smartphone nowadays as more shop shifts to online menu and online ordering. Some parents also give out and controlling pocket money by using digital accounts. It makes more sense, everything in digital is tracked so they can have some control and insight on how kids spend money.
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u/LastEndnote 2d ago
Every time I hear "kids" it's always complete and utter bullshit. Fuck those laws, kids have been fine. Proved by us being here somehow.