It's Time to Give Your Kid a Mobile Device: What Do You Choose?

I like the Apple Watch idea. Unfortunately I’ve never been able to convince any friends or family with kids around this age to even attempt this route, so I’m not sure how effective it is.

To me it will depend on the sort of kid(s) I have in the future. If I have a kid who is a nerd like me interested in technology in its own right, maybe I will figure out some way to handle it responsibly. Back when I was 5-6, I could spend all day on a Windows 95 laptop with no internet and no games besides Minesweeper and Solitaire, and open the Help menu of every application and read every single article in the Windows Help dialog, because that is the sort of weird-ass kid I was. But this is like a true passion for technology, and I would not get in the way of my kids’ passions.

However, it’s not a passion to want to scroll through and endlessly consume TikToks, or do any sort of other passive activity on a phone or computer. Social media, and many (but not all) video games are public health hazards in my opinion, and until that changes (which it won’t) I’d treat them as such. I’d buy them either a Pixel a-series or an iPhone e-series depending on what I’m most into at that time—and only because you need a smartphone for Signal—and lock them down to messaging and phone calls only.

People do often tell me I’ll change my mind when I do have kids this age, so I understand it’s not ideal for everyone, but this is the one hard line I think I will ever have, which is that technology will only ever be allowed to be used as a tool , never in a position where you are taking direction from technology.