This is for kids who don't yet have a smart phone, not as a smart phone replacement for kids who already had smartphones. I made something similar for my kids(basically, a phone with buttons that can call a fixed set of people), and my kids love it, and use it multiple times per day.

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vscode-rest 12 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Probably the best thing is a CB radio. Let them talk to any other kids in town but no chance of weirdness.

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wolrah 11 hours ago | parent [-]

> Probably the best thing is a CB radio. Let them talk to any other kids in town but no chance of weirdness.

No chance of weirdness? On CB? Have you used a CB?!?

I had a CB in my car for a while and the majority of the talk I ever heard on it outside of traffic updates and cop reports on major interstate highways was weird shit.

	▲	vscode-rest 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Perhaps. But weirdness in a public space is superior to weirdness in DMs.

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bitwize 12 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

If the kid doesn't have a smartphone, and looks around and sees kids who do have one, they're gonna be envious and pissed when their parents tell them they can't have one. I know because it's analogous to what I felt when I was still slumming it with my TI-99/4A when every other kid had a NES back in the late 80s.

	▲	loloquwowndueo 12 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Your kid is envious about their friends who smoke all the time. Would you buy your kid some cigarettes just so they can be non-envious?
	▲	wisemang 11 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Pfft those suckers didn't have Parsec or Car Wars or Ms. Pac Man plus the hours spent typing TI-BASIC from a magazine was less frustrating than trying to get the jumps right on Super Mario Bros level 8-2. And I'm sure Demolition Division and Meteor Multiplication are why I ended up with a math degree. For real though I spent so much time pining for Mario 3 before my parents finally did give in. But I feel like there was something good about the diversity, like when I could play Lode Runner on my buddy's C64 (actually a 128... GO 64)
	▲	ares623 12 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		That sentiment has been changing. Kids themselves are seeing social media for what it really is.