“We have a smartphone addiction problem. Around 77 percent of American adults now own a smartphone, up from 35 percent in 2011, and many of those users check their phones at least 80 times a day,” Gracy Olmstead writes for The Week. “‘Nomophobia’ — the fear associated with loss of mobile contact — impacts a substantial share of smartphone users, according to recent surveys.”
“In response to this trend, two major Apple shareholders — California’s teacher pension fund, CalSTRS, and the JANA Partners investment group — are asking Apple to build child and teen parameters into their products,” Olmstead writes. “In an open letter to the company’s board, they argue that it doesn’t make sense to hand a child or teen ‘the same phone as a 40-year-old.'”
“Of course, such involvement and concern on Apple’s part would be ideal,” Olmstead writes. “In a perfect world, Apple (as well as other tech giants like Facebook and Google) would take responsibility for the dangerously addictive nature of their technologies.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Making it easy and intuitive for parents to set up usage limits is a no-brainer and Apple most certainly would be smart to do so.
That said, good parenting is good parenting. Apple is not your mommy.
For even more proof that Steve Jobs was an unparalleled visionary (as if we needed any), from The New York Times, September 10, 2014, Nick Bilton recounts a conversation he had with Steve Jobs in late 2010:
Bilton: So, your kids must love the iPad?
Jobs: They haven’t used it. We limit how much technology our kids use at home.“Since then, I’ve met a number of technology chief executives and venture capitalists who say similar things: they strictly limit their children’s screen time, often banning all gadgets on school nights, and allocating ascetic time limits on weekends,” Bilton reported. “I was perplexed by this parenting style. After all, most parents seem to take the opposite approach, letting their children bathe in the glow of tablets, smartphones and computers, day and night. Yet these tech C.E.O.’s seem to know something that the rest of us don’t.”
Read more in the full article here.
Note: Currently in iOS, you can use Restrictions, also known as parental controls, to block or limit specific apps and features on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. More info here.
SEE ALSO:
Two major Apple shareholders push for study of iPhone addiction in children – January 8, 2018
Has Steve Jobs’ iPhone destroyed a generation? – August 3, 2017
Steve Jobs was a low-tech parent – September 11, 2014