Question
Mr. John:
We need your advice. My son just turned 15 and never had video games or a smartphone. He had a flip phone, and watches Tv on weekends. This school year we gave him a Smartphone for him to be able to have the app used by his cross-country team for schedules and meetings, since that is the way they communicate with coach. He does not have other social media apps, google search, or games, because we control it with the Family link. Therefore, he has started throwing big tantrums, he arguments about everything we say, and he is now talking back raising his voice, because we don't let him has social media on his phone or google search and complains that he can't communicate with his friends from overseas (we recently moved back to the USA after 15 years leaving in different countries). In the family computer, we saw some conversations his overseas friends have, and they talk about porno, dirty jokes, a lot of negativism and wrong ideas, memes, nothing productive, reason why we don't want him to be connected to internet all day on a cell phone. He says he feels left out because he is the only one at school who does not have social media --he attends a small catholic High School. He has good grades and no discipline problems at school or out of the house, but at home he is defiant and not listening to us at all. Are we doing the right thing with his cell phone? What else should we do...
