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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.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 11 2020, @04:47PM (3 children)
Indeed, I personally voluntarily replaced my smartphone with a KaiOS based flip phone because having a phone that's with me wherever I go is just too useful. I will be working at a school and the ability to call for help if a student gets hurt outside without having to run to find a phone is just too useful. In olden times, you'd either send another student to get help or go yourself, but the fact that I've got a phone with me cuts precious seconds off the response time if a student has fallen and cracked their skull open.
It's also even easier to avoid using while driving as it doesn't do a lot of the things that people would want to use a phone for while driving anyways.
In terms of the problems they're trying to address restricting the children from having access to smartphones would make far more sense as there are many reasons why children that age have phones other than just games.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Saturday January 11 2020, @05:48PM (2 children)
As an alternative, self control is possible. I've had a smart phone for years, and the battery typically lasts a week because I use it primarily as a cell phone, and I don't even use a cell phone that much.
I stick with a smartphone because it has a much better camera, a much bigger/faster "keyboard" with swipe-typing, and a screen big enough to look up information whenever and wherever I need it. It's a better phone in pretty much every respect except sound quality, and a whole pocket full of handy tools (calculator, level, metal detector, GPS, etc,etc,etc.)
I suspect that one of the things that helps keep me from spending an inordinate amount of time on it is that I stick with a low-data $10/month dumphone plan. A few hundred MB of data per month is more than enough for email and occasional internet/map searches, especially if unused data rolls over to the next month.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 11 2020, @11:13PM (1 child)
No, it's really not. Just having the device on you leads to negative results. The phones themselves are designed to be as addictive as possible and just having it results in cognitive load.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Sunday January 12 2020, @04:18AM
If you say so. Personally the pocket-load far exceeds the cognitive load - but then I choose what I put on it carefully. I have no notifications except for alarms, calendar notifications, and communication directed at me personally. And most of those notification sounds are selected to be easy to ignore - further amplified by bi-hourly clock-chimes that simply note the passage of time without any potential for response, to further weaken the check-every-chime reflex.
I have no social media surveillance/time-waster apps installed, nor such sites bookmarked. No "quick time waster" games installed that can tempt me when waiting in a queue, though I do have a handful of more involved games that I occasionally play when I've got a half-hour+ block of time to fill.
On it's own it's a pocket computer, no more addictive than a desktop - the addictiveness is in the software you choose to install on it, and the relationship you establish with it. And while there's certainly mountains of addictive software and "services" available, installing or using them is completely optional.