As someone who grew up in the 40s and 50s, the idea that I could have a piece of equipment the size of a small note pad in my pocket that allowed me to instantaneously communicate with someone on the other side of the world was pure science fiction. The best we had was a Dick Tracy wrist radio and most of the time they didn’t work. Our home had a telephone with a party line and 2 other homes connected to it so you didn’t even have any real privacy. The advent of the cell phone and now the SMART Phone have been transformational in not only communications but in the availability of information on just about anything with the push of a few buttons. While these new communications devices have made our life easier they have also made them more complicated and in some ways more dangerous to our children.
While smart phones have in many ways made our lives easier, they bring along with them many new problems. While smart phones offer a vast new world of instantaneous information and communication in the hands of immature children they can be quite dangerous when you look at some of the effects that have been linked to their use. These phones have been linked to adolescent depression and substance abuse, Escalating suicides in young girls, Reduced sleep duration, Near sightedness in adolescents and a worsening of ADHD symptoms. These are just a few of the problems created by these mini communications devices. Their use has also been linked to negatively impacting social skills, increased exposure to bullying, inappropriate content and poor academic performance.
So, while I have given you the many potential problems that can arise from allowing children access to smart phones before they can understand their power and problems there is one more that is even more egregious which is SOCIAL MEDIA PROPAGANDA. This information can be very harmful because of its negative influences and the inability of parents to control the content. Research indicates that up to 95% of children aged 13 to 17 use social media and most engage in it daily and social media has the ability to distort self-image, with nearly 50% of adolescents reporting that it negatively affects self-esteem.
Idaho’s Representative Brian Lenny recently wrote an article about Idaho House Bill 542, which was introduced to protect our children from social media. You can read the article HERE. This bill would require social media platforms to obtain parental consent before children under 17 can create accounts. It would strip out functionality deemed addictive and make platforms verify ages and give parents monitoring tools. However, Representative Lenny suggests that parents read the fine print of this bill. The real question is, why do we need government to do what parents can already do? Why are we now turning to government to control what our children can and can’t read when all parents have to do is take away the phone?
I have said many times in past articles that the government already controls too much of our lives and would love to control us from cradle to grave. It is clear from Representative Lenny’s article that Idaho Bill H542 offers no real increase in parental control over children’s access to social media, is riddled with loopholes and exemptions that undermine its effectiveness, and largely serves as a performative compliance measure for companies rather than addressing the root causes of digital harm. The analysis argues that the bill fails to empower parents, is easily circumvented by tech-savvy youth, and ultimately benefits social media companies more than families. It focuses on regulating features instead of addressing deeper issues of parental involvement and algorithm-driven harm.
We have all seen how our public schools, colleges, and universities have become increasingly riddled with a large percentage of liberal teachers and professors over the past 60 years, who have influenced how too many of our children think. We should also not forget how the liberal media, with its biased news and the liberal bent of social media content, has influenced so many Americans. If you think for a minute that you can trust either of these entities to tell the truth, you would be sadly mistaken, as they have an agenda, and that agenda surfaced during Biden’s 4-year reign.
It has been proven that Social Media platforms are riddled with algorithms and liberal content that can lower voting results for a particular party or candidate. Study results have indicated that Twitter lowered the Republican vote share in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. Evidence from survey data, primary elections, and text analysis of millions of Tweets suggests that Twitter’s relatively liberal content may have persuaded voters with moderate views to vote against Donald Trump.
It was truly a blessing that Elon Musk bought Twitter in October of 2022 as it changed many of the algorithms and opened up a social network that had a new conservative bent to its subscribers and commentors. Social media platforms have good and bad points but if you think that they are not influencing our children on how and what they buy, read and listen to you are a fool. As I look at the disruptions taking place in our “Sanctuary Cities” and states it should be a serious wake-up call for all Americans that we are a nation under attack by the left and social media platforms have become the weapons of choice. These platforms are being used in sanctuary cities like Minneapolis, Chicago and Portland to propagandize, socialize, criminalize and organize efforts to stop the lawful deportation of illegals. Thanks to Smart Phones and platforms like signal these anarchists have an instantaneous communications system with the ability to keep track of federal law enforcement officials on a real time basis.
While I’m all for technological innovation and advancement, it makes me wonder what the world will be like 20 or 30 years from now with the advent of “AI” and the innovations it will bring along with its problems. Parents should be cautious before giving their children smartphones, as doing so may complicate both their lives and those of their children. It is important to think carefully before handing a smart phone to a young child.
“We may Get the Government We Deserve, but we may also Get the Children We Deserve”.
