While on the one hand I can agree there’s a place and time to be present and participate appropriately, on the other hand it’s so goddamned tiring to see politics that in situations of nuance zoom in on ‘control them’ as a thing everyone can rally to as if the solution of phone control was really going to be simple and accomplish its objectives.

I mean, criminalizing drugs seemed on its face to be a simple-enough thing to do, and a good idea- who could object to that, right? Who favors addiction, right? What could go wrong? Fundamentally, the ask for enough power to ban anything isn’t a trivial ask, and it shouldn’t be undertaken lightly.

I don’t mind it as long as the phones stay in the classroom in the students’ view, not stored in some office outside. The latter would make the owner worry about their phone being stolen or damaged while out of sight.

These seem all over the place - or maybe it is just this article that is not explaining it well?

For starters, “smartphones” aren’t the only SIM-carrying devices that can access the internet and install apps - dumbphones can do the former and tablets can do both, which you wouldn’t even be able to visibly see someone using, if it is in their bag and they use something like a watch interface to it. Laptops too…

The Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (Safe) for Kids act addresses algorithmic feeds. It would require social media platforms to provide minors with a default chronological feed composed of accounts they have chosen to follow rather than algorithmically suggested ones.

Ngl, that sounds awesome - and not even just for kids! But immediately after that the article continues:

The bill would also mandate that parents have more wide-reaching controls like the ability to block access to night-time notifications.

Isn’t this already built-in to various OS’s, so why put the onus onto the app itself?

Electronic devices like calculators have been a staple inside schools for half a century at least, and poor people who cannot afford one of every type of device will generally opt for one device that can install many different types of apps - so to now ban these apps, b/c they might be used in a certain particular manner… while simultaneously NOT stopping school shootings, it blows my mind.

“Political theater” is the phrase that comes to mind. Another phrase is “No child left behind”, given how the parents seem to be against these policies, but the State has deemed that it knows better™.

Then again, perhaps it has a real purpose in mind after all, as a law designed to extract money out of big tech companies as fees pile up?

“I have seen these addictive algorithms pull in young people, literally capture them and make them prisoners in a space where they are cut off from human connection, social interaction and normal classroom activity,” she said.

literally capture them? you should be literally ejected from office.

She is a horrible person but for this one thing I agree.

I disagree. I think it should be up to the individual schools or students to make the rules, not a statewide bill

Makes sense. They’re distracting. Not sure why they were allowed in the first place.

Students phone usage in schools are problematic. It’s not just in the classroom, but (raises hand) can i go to the bathroom (to use my phone). You can’t lock down their at&t or t-mobile phones. Don’t know how an outright ban would work but it’s worth a shot. Education like democracy is in decline and in peril. Especially public education with the onslaught of charter schools.

They don’t allow phones in actual prisons so why should schools be any different? \s

I wonder how many comments on Lemmy were written out under a desk in class.

Can we just ban smartphones in general? Please?

Go back to payphones and pagers and if you need to carry information in your pocket, PDAs where you have useful non-connected apps and download information ahead of time at home and store on the device instead of using a slow, unreliable, garbage tracking device to find what you need.

Kids need to be able to leave their last words when a school shooter comes. If the government is going to ban phones they should at least allow old school audio recorders. While we are at it might be a good policy to require school ideas to be in shoes at all times so children dead bodies can be identified faster.

Good. Go even further and bad kids from mobile phones until they’re at least 15, and teach them how to responsibly use them