Nearly Half of Parents Worry Their Child Is Addicted To Mobile Devices, Study Finds (usatoday.com) 129
According to a new survey from Common Sense Media and SurveyMonkey, 47% of parents worry their child is addicted to their mobile device. By comparison, only 32% of parents say they're addicted themselves. USA Today reports: Half of parents also say they are at least somewhat concerned about how mobile devices will affect their kids' mental health. Nearly one in five say they're "extremely" or "very" concerned. According to the survey, 89% of parents believe it's up to them to curb their children's smartphone usage. The survey conducted between Jan. 25 and Jan. 29 included a sample of 4,201 adults, including 1,024 parents with children under age 18. Data was weighted to reflect the demographic composition of the U.S. for adults over 18, based on Census data. Many devices and services feature parental controls, but some parents may not be aware they exist. The Common Sense-SurveyMonkey survey found 22% of parents did not know YouTube -- which has faced scrutiny over how easy it is for kids to find inappropriate videos -- offered parental controls. Also, 37% have not used the controls before. Among parents surveyed who say their kids watch YouTube videos, 62% said their kids have seen inappropriate videos on the site. Most, or 81%, said it's the parents' job to prevent kids from seeing these videos.
Ironic (Score:2)
That the survey was online via SurveyMoney. Perhaps not the best sampling.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Addicted.
Is that even still a thing with our current scheme of rebranding willpower fails as disease?
And yes, today's children, and adults, spend way too fracking much time staring into the black mirror... but it's no worse than television and way better than a crack habit.
In other news, nearly half of parents are idiots (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
Well, yes, it is logic. Perhaps if they spend less time tied to that mobile device sharing empty communications, they will pay attention to everything else.
Solution is easy, a minors only internet, with secured log in provided by schools and only licensed adults allowed access to monitor and supervise interactions. All content on the minors only internet must pass a review board but some companies with legal ramifications for failure can upload direct and be reviewed after, get it wrong pay a major fine.
T
Re: (Score:1)
College is un-affordable, school shootings on the rise, we're at 8 wars an counting and AI is going to decimate the job market in the next 20 years... and they pick mobile device addiction to worry about.
Distracted driving accounts for 300,000 injuries and 3,000 deaths every year in the US. And those statistics are doing nothing but rising. School shooting deaths don't even come close to that threat in society. This isn't just an addiction problem. This is a deadly problem that affects all of us.
And since we're not going to win the war against tobacco (440,000 deaths, 30,000 deaths from secondhand smoke) or alcohol (80,000 deaths), might as well try and tackle this ever-increasing issue in society.
And c
ftfy (Score:2)
In other news, more than half of parents are idiots
I wish I was wrong.
Re: (Score:2)
College is un-affordable, school shootings on the rise, we're at 8 wars an counting and AI is going to decimate the job market in the next 20 years... and they pick mobile device addiction to worry about.
Or maybe half of parents pick something they can control to worry about.
Or maybe most people in the world can focus on more than one problem at a time.
Re: (Score:1)
Of all of those mobile device addiction is the one that the parents themselves actually have a chance of doing something about
No evidence (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
So then don't give them a mobile device (Score:2, Insightful)
It's really that simple.
How about nearly half of parents try parenting? (Score:4, Insightful)
These people do realize that it's their job as a parents to tell their kids what they can and can't do, right? Or are they too busy trying to be their kids' chill friend and obsessing over their own selfish shit instead of, you know, BEING THE FUCKING PARENT?
It's a (mostly false) threat! (Score:3)
Parents worry about all sorts of things. Everything is a threat. Which is technically accurate if assessed from the position of "zero risk". But just because a parent is worried about a thing doesn't make it an actual threat, though intuition suggests limiting screen time is a wise choice in general. Also, the inappropriate content issue is partially subjective as well. Define the term and try again, knowing that parents differ on what this means. So define the term and try again. Wash, rinse, repeat.
And while Common Sense Media isn't precisely pro-censorship, they strike me as panicky and reactionary. Also, they have a vested interest in promoting concerns from parents and potential donors. I'm not saying they're in anyway being deceitful, but what I have seen of them suggests a cognitive bias toward provoking fearful response.
Coincidentally (Score:4, Funny)
Nearly half of children worry their parents are addicted to mobile devices.
My parents were worried about books! (Score:3)
"Stop reading and go out and play, you'll ruin your eyes".
My mother fell for it, my dad was harder to fool.
Re: (Score:3)
"Stop reading and go out and play, you'll ruin your eyes".
My mother fell for it, my dad was harder to fool.
Nah, "you'll ruin your eyes" was the excuse they told kids. They were actually worried about the fact that you'll never get laid.
Re: (Score:2)
Where I live, parents use to say that it would make you deaf, not blind.
https://uk.answers.yahoo.com/q... [yahoo.com]
Re: (Score:2)
https://www.cnn.com/2015/04/05... [cnn.com]
Many studies show enough sunlight exposure during youth years prevents nearsightedness.
Re: (Score:2)
The other half did not look up from their screens (Score:2)
The Answer Is Obvious (Score:2)
Did anyone tell them? (Score:5, Insightful)
That their parents were afraid they were addicted to TV?!
Their parents' parents were afraid they were addicted to radio.
Apparently this is a thing with every generation that advances somewhat from the old.
“The children now love luxury. They have bad manners. Contempt for authority. They show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.” “[Technology] will create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories. They will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing. They will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing” - Socrates
Some more examples: http://mentalfloss.com/article... [mentalfloss.com]
Re: (Score:3)
All I see is a chain a true statements throughout history. ...
We do have a generation of people unhealthily addicted to mobile devices, social media, etc.
We do have a generation of people unhealthily addicted to TV and video games.
We did have a generation of people unhealthily addicted to radio and music.
We do increasingly rely on technology instead of our brains and hands.
We are increasingly losing practical skills such as cooking, sewing, financial management, carpentry, remembering, thinking, etc.
Technol
Re:Did anyone tell them? (Score:4, Informative)
That their parents were afraid they were addicted to TV?!
Their parents' parents were afraid they were addicted to radio.
Apparently this is a thing with every generation that advances somewhat from the old.
Addiction to television and radio did not cause thousands of deaths every year. And distracted driving deaths are on the rise.
Don't be ignorant as to why this addiction is considerably different than the concerns of yesteryear. Addicts can't put their fucking phone down to stop killing innocent people on the road, and that is a threat that damn near every one of us have to face on a daily basis.
Re: (Score:1)
So you're telling me that the obesity crisis has NOTHING to do with people sitting on their fat asses watching television for hours on end when they could be doing something outside, like going for a walk.
Pretty certain people are dying left and right from the damn things.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
I think you're ignoring that technology is becoming more immersive .... radio just involves the ears, tv eyes and years, whilst phones games are way more immersive and are likely to hold a childs attention longer,
Progressively intensifying the immersive technologies kids are exposed to is a social experiment, have no doubt about it. With the next generation it'll be augmented reality and VR, who knows after that.
Re: (Score:2)
Wait for when VR takes hold. Our children will say that their children have completely abandoned reality...
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
I do think phones are a bit different. Many people these days can't spend 30 seconds not doing anything -- they'll reach for their phones instinctively. TV/comics/music never approached this level of behavior change.
Not to say that this is a negative. It certainly can be sometimes, but I think it'd be wrong to reach a broad conclusion about it. My assumption is that you are correct and that parents are just worrying about things like parents always have... and people generally still tend to turn out alright
Re: (Score:3)
Hmm. Dramatic sounding.
To the parents I say this: your child carries with them more knowledge, power, and responsibility in their pocket than you've likely known in the past fifty years.
It's just a pocket internet connected computer. Yes, there's plenty of useful stuff to connect to, and plenty of useless and harmful crap too.
And no, my children don't carry them in their pockets, because they don't need them and I don't let them. They are children, and they don't yet have the wisdom to navigate every dark alley in the world.
Re: (Score:1)
I was gonna say "spot the millennial", but you've already got that covered in your subject line.
Yeah, the kids really hate it when you diss their toys.
> your child carries with them more knowledge, power, and responsibility in their pocket than you've likely known in the past fifty years
The problem here is that those children become to *depend* on those *tools* (and that's all they are). Take it away, and most are completely unable to function in society.
Easy Test. (Score:4, Funny)
Take it away and see IF they act like a junkie.
Nervous?
Sweating?
Inability to form thoughts or opinions?
Sunlight painful?
Can't sleep?
Lack of personal hygiene?
Irritable?
Defensive?
You might be an addict.
Only half? (Score:3)
The other half ... (Score:5, Insightful)
This car and truck addiction is just scary (Score:1)
Seriously, what parent isn't concerned that their kid is addicted to mobile devices? Cars, trucks, sure they seem innocent enough, but then they start demanding you change zoning codes to subsidize the device storage "Mom, I want my trucks in the living room AND the kitchen!", they require minimum parking standards "I don't want to go to grandma's house, there's no place to play with my car race set!", and they monopolize the streets demanding more than one-third of the land "I have to set up my race track
Re: (Score:2)
I for one am glad to step on a cell phone in the middle of the night in my bare feet, rather than a truck or car toy
Re: (Score:2)
If parents were serious they'd take the mobile devices away.
If your preteen was "addicted" to heroin, you'd hope most parents would do more than wring their hands over it. At the very least not tolerate it under their roof.
An addict never sees a problem with addiction. Doesn't fucking help matters when the junkies are also the parents.
not worried for my kids (Score:2)
phone? pfft, my son is a gamer and his video card weighs more than my PC tower. he can't carry that around 24x7
I'm surprised.... (Score:1)
Only 50%? (Score:1)
As a parent... (Score:2)
The problem is not so much any sort of addiction as it's a time sink. Sites like YouTube are designed so that you keep clicking on more videos until hours have passed and no homework were done. If it weren't mobile devices, it'd be TV or something else, but mobile devices is what we have to worry about recently. When they're teens you can't just look over their shoulders, so the best I've come up with is openwrt (LEDE) DNS blocking.
SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING (Score:2)
Only 89% think it's up to them to curb use? (Score:2)
And what about the 19% who think it's up to someone else to make sure their kids don't see inappropriate material? What other parental responsibilities do they think they can shirk? Who do they think should be doing their job for them?
Re: (Score:2)