Should children use smartphones without parental supervision?

https://i.imgur.com/YbOyFPH.jpg

In today's day and age, technology has become such an important factor of our lives. We use it to work, to surf the web, and connect with friends and family from all around the world. Although it has a positive impact, there are also many things on the internet that people believe should not be accessible to children. Although there are child blocks to many websites and videos, some parents still do not know the full extent of what their children do online.

With that being said, our next debate topic is: Should children use smartphones without parental supervision?

Let me know your thoughts in the thread below!

THIS DEBATE CLOSES 31ST DECEMBER AT 11:59PM BST!

Please take a look at the debates guidelines.

I wouldn't give my child a phone until they were in secondary school, which is what my parents did with me.

I find it sad watching teenagers just sitting on their phone on playgrounds when me and my friends were chasing one other with water bottles.

Are we grouping smartphones and tablets into the same category?
Either way, yes definitely with parental supervision.

More parental supervision if they're younger, less the older they get.
I think having access to so much more on the internet can be a great thing, but there are also so many things that children shouldn't see without their parents around or even at all.

Definitely with parental supervision, but you can also now restrict certain websites or even restrict to a certain age, I do see the benefits obviously but also you want to time limit your kids.

Probably, most parents these days just hand their kids a tablet or phone to shut them up, or to basically do the parenting for them, as kids are often quiet when playing on a device. Then it becomes the norm for your child to be using these devices all the time, and half of the time I bet parents haven't even safe guarded the device for explicit content etc... then you got the case of kids literally living their lives with their eyes glued to a screen.

I can't see the point of buying a kid a little, portable omniscient machine that can(, among other things,) calculate scientific operations, teach you how to turn pieces of wood into a chair, and locate, via advanced GPS-esque algorithms, the love of your life.

By default, more than in any era, the core essence of the internet have turned out to be this massive and messy popularity contest, if you are not careful enough — it is present in almost every single app, in a major or minor level (except for forums! woohoo! all we want is healthy discussions for their own benefits!). Not too good if you are a little human being that is just commencing to build your social psyche (hopefully!) and are yet to develop a sense of self worth... Social media accounts are about telling personal stories, and it only gets interesting once the teller has a lived repertory, which is exactly what children still have very in low amount! An Instagram and whatnot owned by a girl of 10 shouldn't be conceptually interesting for anyone, and if it is for you, please stay away from me!

Give the children those intentionally limited "Nokias" whilst the grown-ups stay with the Galaxies, etc.