Why don't we just put everyone in a box after they are born and feed them through a straw like a hamster so they can't possibly ever harm themselves? People need to take responsibility for themselves.

How about require that parents not provide a cell phone to a child before a certain age?

What's a game of chance to you to him is one of real skill...

This is the most dystopian thing I've ever read.

But probably the best way to defeat the existential threat of gray goo.

This runs chills down the spine. Terrifying.

While I appreciate the social cohesion and equality of opportunity such a totalitarian indoctrination and control could provide, it’s anathema to most Westerners. I would not support it.

Certainly it’s the fastest way to curb religious extremism, racism, and other social ills. Sadly it’s also the fastest way to create them.

Yeah but you can’t replace parental love so easily. So maybe a compromise solution where the government raises the children while the parents are at work in the mornings and afternoon, and the parents take over afterwards in the evening? Maybe let parents have the weekends to spend more time with their children? We can call this arrangement “public schooling”.

We could make the government portion of raising kids flexible and offer more time to parents with longer hours. Call this “extracurriculars” maybe. Thoughts on my novel idea?

In the US we have a system where thousands of doctors, nurses and researchers are responsible for the healthcare of soldiers, former and present.

Healthcare is a known thing. We know how to provide good healthcare. This inherently does not require innovation.

The VA is one of the most fundamentally broken and flawed systems known to man. Months and months before you can get basic care. Psychiatric care is so poor that soldiers have stupidly high rates of suicide. Basic things go misdiagnosed. There are reams of paperwork to fill out.

Do you really think we should trust kids to such a system?

Cuz we already do. Right now there are thousands of kids managed by the US government and they barely have blankets or beds. The government can barely feed them, and generally fails at showering them and clothing them.

Read into any case where a bulk group has mass raised children. Not once has it worked out. Not once.

If you had any experience with child protection services you would know that it is just a 9 to 5 job for those people and they do not love the kids (I don't mean that harshly doctors don't cry every time a patient dies on them).

Parental love is an impossible thing to simulate.

Exactly. Then we'll have abolished the nuclear family and the problem of generational wealth. There will be an equitable distribution of wealth and disparities along racial, sexual, and economic lines will have evaporated.

Without generational wealth or inheritance, there will be no incentive to own property. All housing will be group housing provided in return for work. All transportation will be provided as a public utility. People will no longer have anything to hide.

But then we go on to legalize Marijuana in California.

You're regulating chemical compounds with cigarettes. You are regulating patterns of presenting data with social media.

Why just limit it social media? Why not also include video games, streaming services, movies, etc.?

> others harming their children

I'd suggest they did harm to their own children when they allowed a smartphone and social media at an early age.

What a lazy, pathetic attitude. Why don't you sue candy makers while you're at it?

If you don't want to perform a parent's job, DON'T HAVE KIDS.

I detest social-media companies in general, but clogging up our courts with this namby-pamby bullshit is offensive to every citizen.

And ugh, just as people were mocking Reddit's declining culture, a couple of them turn around and down-mod this oh-so-hurtful sentiment.

Pull up your big-boy pants and parent your kids, because taxpayers shouldn't be paying for your nanny. They're already paying for your kids' schooling.

1) We decided for highschool for the first phone. Some parents give smart watches so the kids are contactable but don't have a big screen.

2) I have the Google controls. That said, its as you say kids can circumvent controls so the best thing you can do is have this conversation.

We've spoken a buch of times with the kids about how other kids will look at gore/porn out of interest/shock value but they should choose not to as its not healthy etc. And other things like staying private online, predators, come to us if they are getting bullied or do something wrong like share an embarrasing picture and its getting used against them etc.

Ultimately this one its about having a good/trusting parent child relationship I feel than via digital restrictions.

3) From the Google controls we have time restriction, both time of day and total hours.

The other thing I feel is important 1) is making sure you do things with kids. It's easy to get tired as a parent and let them entertain themself but playing board games and sports etc is so important. Making sure you have quality time beyond screens makes it a smaller part of their life. And 2) Encourage the right friendships. Put the effort to organise events with kids/families with good values as the group surrounding them will have a big impact.

Not to mention, beyond the technical considerations, there's also social implications. To what extent can you remove kids from social media before they start feeling excessively socially constricted compared to their peers? For example, taking away phones altogether is likely to lead to a much harder social life. If the tech companies encourage more responsible use of social media, they can make it easier for both the parents and kids who may want to reduce usage of it. In the same way, the lack of any guardrails whatsoever helped bring us to where we are now. I imagine both pieces are necessary/useful. Disclaimer that I'm not a parent so haven't had to think about this too deeply but it is something I consider in a hypothetical sense at times.

To answer your questions

1/ You do that when you get the idea that they have grown smart enough and sneaking and doing it anyway on their friends' phones. 2/ Apple phones are good and hard to hack (at least by a regular kid). 3/ Yes. Plus a reward/punishment system for additional/curtailed hours on completion of chores.

I personally have a slightly different approach.

1/ I have given them Kindle as replacement devices (they also have jailed phones) and socially engineered them to make them feel superior about that. I've also given them some RPi to play with (to practically apply the things they read and learn from the books on Kindle).

This way, they don't take the phone as a forbidden fruit (since they already have it).

2/ I have created a normal user on Android phones with Microsoft ecosystem (I have a O360 family subscription) so, apart from the regular firewall stuff, it also logs everything my kids do on the phone and reports to me. Occassionally I go through the complete logs in their phones, to see if they tried to bypass their user profiles and do something funny.

However, it's important to make them realise that all this is done for their own good. Plus I make sure not to interfere in everything they do. It's ok to make mistakes as long as I can make sure it's reversible. Otherwise I've seen deep rooted resentment in some other kids. For example, their map locations sync to me in real time. I make sure they understand that this is for their own convenience (kids don't care about safety so no point in highlighting that) like arranging an Uber if they need one or to give them directions. That way, they don't take it as spying on them and are completely comfortable with sharing their live location with me. On the contrary, they take it as their parent (me) taking care of them and are actually pretty proud about it.

3/ I avoid negative feedback loops. I don't say you can use the phone only for 2 hours daily. Rather I say, you can use the phone as long as you want but only after you finish your daily checklist. Chores/Class tasks etc. It's works pretty well.

It's interesting when people advocate both "free range children" and "helicopter parenting" at the same time.