“ORToday, smartphones are as widespread as concerns about their effects on young brains.” It starts like this the article onAtlantic by Ian Bogostprofessor of engineering and computer science at Washington University in St. Louis (Missouri), and expert in media and game studies. Psychologists, educators and pediatricians repeat ad nauseam how harmful telephones are. Nevertheless the question – admits Bogost – «is not whether your child will ever have a smartphone, but rather how to manage its adoption so as to preserve the integrity of the life of the child, parents, school and family.” And he believes «he has found a good solution: give your child a watch». The expert’s invitation is not solitary, on the contrary: the smartwatch option it is used by many parents and the debate on whether it can help protect children and teenagers from the dangers of the web – especially social media – is open. So here are the pros and cons.
Instead of a smartphone, a smartwatch: will this be enough to “save” our children?
Bogost believes that smartwatches can be used to help girls and boys gradually manage online communications, in a relatively protected context and in any case preventing them from feeling excluded and “different” from their friends. The idea that a child can use a smartphone in a safe, healthy and responsible manner is unrealistic. That it can do the same with a smartwatch is not.
The growth in demand for smartwatches
At the moment this is a thesis, studies and evidence are lacking. There are those who support it (for example this article on Cnet). Second SaveFamilySpanish manufacturer specializing in technology for minors, demand for children’s smartwatches has grown by 40% in the last three years. With products of this type it would be possible to delay the delivery of the first smartphone by one to two and a half years.
Again according to SaveFamily, 68% of children start using the Internet before the age of 11 and 15.3% do so before the age of five. 53% of parents immediately perceive emotional consequences such as irritability, anxiety or frustration as soon as the use of the device is prevented.
Smartwatches for children: pros and cons
Advantages compared to the smartphone
Smartwatches have GPS and limited calling functions: allow you to send and receive messages only to approved contacts and to know where the child is (for example on the way home to school) but not to frequent social networks.
There is therefore no browser or access to YouTube, TikTok or Instagram.
In case of emergency, the SOS button allows you to call up to some contacts in sequence and send the location in real time.
Parents can activate features such as remote listening, blocking unknown calls or creating safe zones.
While on smartphones the control applications can be easily deactivated, GPS watches for children, however, have parental controls built in natively.
In short, seems like a concrete tool to delay smartphone use: it reduces digital exposure while allowing that “control” which is the excuse for which the telephone is generally given.
Risks, disadvantages, critical issues: security vulnerability
Obviously there are some “buts”. First of all, they are there security vulnerability issues. He highlighted it asurvey conducted by the Swiss consumer monthly K-Tipp, in collaboration with cybersecurity company Compass Security. Considering that in Switzerland the majority of children wear smartwatches in primary school, the results are significant. Testing of 11 models revealed serious security flaws, risks of hidden surveillance and compromised privacy.
Of the eleven smartwatches tested, only three passed all safety checks without any major flaws: the Apple Watch SE, the Xplora X6 and the Anio 5s. These models have encrypted data and have been declared fully compliant with Swiss and European privacy regulations.
It is not a substitute for parent-child discipline and trust
But safety is not the only issue. Although not as much as a smartphone, even a smartwatch can distract children from the real world. Finally, one remains control tool: using it does not guarantee that the child will develop and know how to manage autonomy in the real world.
A connected device cannot replace parental discipline and trust. It may be that a smartwatch is an educational bridge between childhood and the better, more manageable technology of a smartphone, precisely because of its limitations. But it is not harmless: it certainly does not relieve us, as parents, of our responsibilities. It continues to be our task to educate our children in the responsible use of technology, so that they never become dependent on it, either at the age of twenty or forty. That is, slaves.