Preserving Childhood?

Colorado doctor’s goal to ban smartphones for those under 13 goes too far

How many times have you heard—or maybe said—that kids need to stop staring at their phones all day and get outside and play like we used to do back in the days before the internet and all its related technology?

Many readers are old enough to recall when a Texarkana childhood meant time spent outdoors with friends. You might ride bikes or play Red Rover or climb trees. Maybe you would hit one of the playgrounds for a pick-up game of baseball or football. If you were lucky, you would get to go swimming, maybe at the Spring Lake Park pool or over at Crystal Springs in Maud.

The only thing to do inside was watch TV and back then that meant choosing from three channels. During the day there wasn’t much for a kid to watch unless he or she happened to be into game shows or soap operas.

Now? Well, there’s the smartphone. You can watch video, chat with friends, play games. All one one device that seems to work best, we hear, when you are planted on the couch.

It’s not just kids, of course. Adults are captivated, too. But children raise the most concern. Their minds and bodies are developing. Direct interaction with others is vital for socialization. Childhood obesity rates are rising. The common wisdom is that the best cure is to put down the phone and head outside. But how to go about it? A doctor in Colorado is drumming up support for legislation called the Preservation of Natural Childhood statute to ban smartphone sales to those under the age of 13. The bill would also prohibit anyone older from buying a smartphone for someone below that age. He’s started a petition drive to get the bill before voters.

We are sure there are good intentions at work. And we agree that children should spend less time online and more outside. But this is nonsense.

Parents should determine when a child is ready for a smartphone. And it should be up to parents to allow access to the phone on their terms, not the child’s—or the state’s.

The best remedy for all of this is for parents to take charge of their child’s smartphone use. We understand some will, some will not. But that should be up to them. This bill ventures too far into the “nanny state” mentality.