So many parent's today don't follow this advice and they see it as harmless.
I know a good number of parents that track a variety number of things through the phones, where they've mandated to their children if you don't keep your phone on and with you, and powered up, then you can't go out or socialize.
They used it to monitor speeding (when driving), location (curfew), parents received automated notifications for both when no signal was present (checked every 5 minutes). Some had more pernicious spyware installed on the phones (to see what they were texting, looking up on the internet, etc).
I know one person where they were punished because the app read a 1mph over the speed limit which generated a notification; he got grounded (isolated) for a month, and another time because his phone ran out of battery while he was out.
These are both extremely minor in my opinion, hardly deserving the torture of 2 whole months of isolation (in aggregate); worse it instills no controllable habits and conditions learned helplessness.
Sometimes you need to go above the speed limit to avoid a hazard, sometimes the odometer gauge is out of standard (every measurement has error), sometimes the battery discharges faster than it says (and when you won't replace it for a new one because of cost), that shouldn't be on them.
You can say trust them all you want, but parents today are a majority of neurotic dictators with only a rare few exceptions.
Like with all things along these lines, that won't change until you force them to change, and no one is forcing them to give their children the same rights and privileges they received as children.
I think it says something very important about a society where the general consensus is you condition and indoctrinate your children to effectively be slaves/exploited.
There is a lot of mythos and ethos with stories going back through the ages about what happens when parents raise their children as sacrifices or for slavery. (Greek Mythology: Chronos (Titans) v. Zeus)).
My advice only works with open-minded, understanding, emotionally healthy and well adjusted parents unfortunately. Some parents are destined to fail, regardless of advice given, because of who they are, their life experiences, and what they believe the relationship between parent and child to be. They will, in some quantity, eventually be estranged from their children.
I believe it is the responsibility of parents to provide a safe environment for humans to grow, learn who they are, and how the world works, until the can operate and exist safely without their parents. They are not property, they are their own people. This concept is not widely held, in my experience interacting with other parents.
> I believe it is the responsibility of parents to provide a safe environment for humans to grown, learn who they are, and how the world works, until they can operate and exist safely without their parents.
I agree completely, and empathize with children who don't receive this (having been on the receiving end myself and overcoming it).
It is a rare individual relying heavily on chance, who can overcome their own disadvantaged environment and become a mature and productive person after that kind of upbringing.
> This concept is not widely held, in my experience interacting with other parents.
Many parents themselves are shadows of what they could have been, had they not been indoctrinated with mal-adaptive behaviors early in life; behaviors that they pass on to their children repeating a preventable destructive cycle.
Joost Meerloo covers some of this in his books on thought reform (WW2 Nazis/Camp Torture, and Mao). The structured techniques he covers are subtly embedded in most centralized education today. An example, the hot potato of calling students out to answer opinion questions is one example derived from wartime torture techniques. It imposed mental coercion on the student to agree with the teacher, and promotes bullying outside of class for those who receive disapproval.
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