New York Times’ New Articles on Silicon Valley Parents’ Fears About Kids and Screens Includes “The Devil Lives in Our Phones.”

By B.N. Frank

The New York Times and many others have reported about this before so these concerns aren’t new and neither are Silicon Valley parents’ efforts to limit their kids’ use and exposure to technology:

This idea that Silicon Valley parents are wary about tech is not new. The godfathers of tech expressed these concerns years ago, and concern has been loudest from the top.

Tim Cook, the C.E.O. of Apple, said earlier this year that he would not let his nephew join social networks. Bill Gates banned cellphones until his children were teenagers, and Melinda Gates wrote that she wished they had waited even longer. Steve Jobs would not let his young children near iPads.

Former Facebook president Sean Parker is worried that social media may be rotting kids’ brains. Dr. Jean Twenge has said in regard to kids that screens are causing the worst mental health crisis in decades.

Also not a new concern: how kids are affected by blue light and radiation exposure from screens and new technology in general. For about 10 years already, many countries outside of the U.S. have been proactive about trying to reduce kids’ exposure to tech and their use of it in general. The exact opposite has happened in the U.S.

Besides technology having been heavily incorporated in public schools and taxes increased to pay for this, tech has also been heavily marketed to children and their parents as “must have” educational, health, and recreational devices despite news coverage, warnings and research about addiction and harm caused by radiation exposure.

Even Sesame Street now features a character, “Smartie, The Smart Phone” and allows their characters to be used in Virtual Reality programs. The New York Public Library is downloading children’s books onto Instagram to encourage reading. There are now “Smart Playgrounds.”

None of this seems to be benefiting children

Yet, there is still research being conducted to just make sure. It’s ridiculously tragic and everyone is being affected by this already one way or another.

So who will eventually be held responsible for the harm being caused by all of this? Apparently not insurance companies…

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the U.S. agency that regulates technology. They are not a health agency. Increased tech use and exposure to kids and the rest of us will continue until federal guidelines for radiation exposure are updated. Please consider signing an online petition demanding they do this ASAP.

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