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posted by janrinok on Saturday January 11 2020, @02:12PM   Printer-friendly
from the making-a-point dept.

Vermont bill would ban cell phone use by anyone younger than 21:

A bill has been introduced in Vermont's legislature that would prohibit anyone under 21 years old from using or possessing a cell phone. However, the bill appears to be more about gun rights than cell phones.

The bill, introduced Tuesday by Democratic Sen. John Rodgers, says those under the age of 21 "are not developmentally mature enough" to posses and use cell phones safely. The bill cites fatal car crash and bullying among teens as reasons for the proposed legislation.

"The use of cell phones while driving is one of the leading killers of teenagers in the United States," according to the bill (PDF). "Young people frequently use cell phones to bully and threaten other young people, activities that have been linked to many suicides."

The bill would make possession or use of a cell phone by anyone under 21 punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

The bill says that if those under 21 "aren't mature enough" to possess guns, smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol, then the same rule should apply to cell phone use. In recent years, the state has passed laws raising the minimum smoking age to 21 and prohibiting the sale of firearms to anyone under 21.

[...] "I have no delusions that it's going to pass. I wouldn't probably vote for it myself," he told the newspaper.


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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by inertnet on Saturday January 11 2020, @03:47PM (4 children)

    by inertnet (4071) on Saturday January 11 2020, @03:47PM (#942239) Journal

    Some people are totally addicted to their smartphones. How about a system where providers are legally bound to allow internet connections for a limited amount of minutes per day? Let's say, if people are only allowed one hour of internet time per day, less of them will use that time behind the wheel of a car.

    Ideally I'd opt for better education of youth on smartphone use and its dangers, but the world is past that already. That can be done anyway, but it won't solve the current epidemic.

    Another idea would be a sort of driver's licence, but for smartphone ownership instead.

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  • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Saturday January 11 2020, @06:03PM (1 child)

    by Immerman (3985) on Saturday January 11 2020, @06:03PM (#942268)

    As an alternative - get a cheap, extremely low-data "dumphone" plan, especially for kids. A few hundred MB of data a month is quite serviceable for email and occasional information lookups, but completely untenable for much more than that.

    As an added bonus, having an extremely limited data budget helps teach budget management, which is something most peple these days don't seem to really start learning until their 20s. Hard to believe that 12 year olds used to be expected to start seriously learning to manage their own households not all that many generations ago.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 11 2020, @10:29PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 11 2020, @10:29PM (#942325)

      extremely low-data "dumphone" plan, especially for kids. A few hundred MB of data a month is quite serviceable

      Wow.... and I thought a 28.8kbps was a low-data plan.

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday January 11 2020, @11:19PM (1 child)

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday January 11 2020, @11:19PM (#942336) Homepage

    The problem nowadays is that parents give their babies cell phones so that they can play baby games and shut the fuck up not disturbing the adults.

    The only problem is that giving a kid a cell phone is like feeding a dog human food. All it takes it once, and then it's all over. Feed a dog human food and they will literally act like they are cracked out, jumping all over the place and biting everything up, and they will attack you if you refuse to share your McDonalds with them.

    Pull the phone away from a kid and they will start kicking and screaming, and even if they are old enough to be spanked, parents are not allowed to do that anymore because CPS will be called and their kid taken away and given to one of Adam Schiff's "charities." Back in the day when I pulled that shit with my Nintendo, if I tried to bargain or refuse when told to stop, I'd get pulled off the floor by my ear. It didn't take much of that before I got the hint.

    There's a reason people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs don't believe in letting their kids have phones. If I had kids who didn't get the message, then I'd tell them to be that annoying mooch who always asks their friends to use their phones somewhere else if they're Jonesin' so bad, and that shit comes to a stop once they're back home for dinner.

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 12 2020, @02:39AM

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday January 12 2020, @02:39AM (#942388) Journal

      Feed a dog human food and they will literally act like they are cracked out, jumping all over the place and biting everything up, and they will attack you if you refuse to share your McDonalds with them.

      Maybe you should just stop taking in strays that escape their crack head masters?