https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/us/openai-chatgpt-suicide-lawsuit-invs-vis

Absolutely heart breaking and highly disturbing article to read about a young Aggie. Our young men and women just have exposure and access to things we never had to even think about or adapt to. What is the best way to handle something like this? My kids are still too young to use technology in any significant and unsupervised way, I just want to prepare them to decipher what's really happening and what is only real in their perception when things seem bad.

It is truly sad. Technology is an extremely powerful tool that can be used for good or evil. As a parent my plan is to not be afraid to parent. Don't be afraid to go against the societal norms that have become commonplace. These developing brains don't need all of these obstacles to contend with; adults really don't either. In this case there are obviously mental health issues present that we can't really speculate about.

All I know is that we will be sparsely allowing technology and will not shy away from hard truths even as kids get older. You never stop being a parent, although I acknowledge the dynamics may shift over time.

Practically, I think giving kids smart phones is crazy. I haven't reached that age yet, but I cannot foresee a reason to give one prior to becoming an adult. Computers in their room or freedom to access that whenever they please? Televisions in their room? Nope. We will have to be pretty intentional about all of that stuff, since it can't simply just be avoided.

We gave our 14 year old daughter a smartphone for the first time last Christmas, but I had one of my cyber security IT savants put so much tracking software on that thing and block anything remotely pg-13 that she can pretty much just text her friends (where I get copies of the logs), read books on kindle, listen to music (both that I have to approve) and call approved numbers. Maybe a little big brother panopticon-ish, but then again she doesn't have to have a phone.

Technology is a wicked double edged sword. They need to be exposed to it, know how to use it, but also be protected from its excesses.

I am so thankful that I grew up just before the time of widespread smart phones. I think the Razr came out when I was at A&M, and my senior year I had the old blackberry that got espn, yahoo, and a few other sites.

Every kid is different. I think the problem is that there is a group think about how to parent. And if you parent outside of that echo chamber then people start questioning what kind of parent you are.

I have eight kids. I had some kids get a phone when they were 13 because they were mature enough to handle it. They saw social media for what it really was, and really just used it as a device to communicate with their friends. I have a kid that basically didn't have a phone until he was 18. He couldn't handle it. We gave him a phone and his grades immediately dropped. And it happened again and again, every time we trusted him with it, we'd see a change.

What is the key to all that? We walked close enough to our kids to see an immediate change. Or to see how they were using that phone responsibly.

One thing to consider is that it is an excellent tool to teach your teenagers how to operate in this new world. You can tell them how destructive social media is, but until they experience it for themselves they will never know. Teach them that what they are reading could be AI and how to recognize it. Show them the value to face to face relationships and outdoor activities. You just have to be willing to put in the time and not let the phone do the parenting.

All that said, we are busy as parents. If you don't have the time (not judging... it is a real thing especially for dual income families), then the default should be to let them have it as late as possible.

10andBOUNCE said:

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It is truly sad. Technology is an extremely powerful tool that can be used for good or evil. As a parent my plan is to not be afraid to parent. Don't be afraid to go against the societal norms that have become commonplace. These developing brains don't need all of these obstacles to contend with; adults really don't either. In this case there are obviously mental health issues present that we can't really speculate about.

All I know is that we will be sparsely allowing technology and will not shy away from hard truths even as kids get older. You never stop being a parent, although I acknowledge the dynamics may shift over time.

Practically, I think giving kids smart phones is crazy. I haven't reached that age yet, but I cannot foresee a reason to give one prior to becoming an adult. Computers in their room or freedom to access that whenever they please? Televisions in their room? Nope. We will have to be pretty intentional about all of that stuff, since it can't simply just be avoided.

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A.I. is a disembodied artificial consciousness that can't be oriented towards Christ. It's only orientation is demonic and unfortunately it will take some time for people to realize that (basically more deaths and psychosis). It's also not considered tech. It uses us, not the other way around. That's why Elon bought twitter. He needed humans to train Grok. AI is more like an advanced Ouija board. Think Jack Parsons but in the hands of everyone.

Half of my company AI training on LinkedIn was to convince the individual that it's not human. Of course the language that was associated with the training was all about unlocking human creativity and allowing us more time to be truly human which was hilarious to me given the fact that none of these people have an epistemic justification for what that actually means. Unfortunately we are surrounded by people who completely lack discernment and wisdom.

We've actively avoided giving our kids technology.

They have things like radios (Yoto players) and get some small things like digipets type stuff, but no video games, computers, iPads, etc.

The nice thing has been the private school they are in shares the aversion to technology. 3rd and 1st grade and no computers or anything. It's great.

We are dreading our likely upcoming move and public school that, well very high rated and will be an excellent schools, see it as wise to give at least 3rd graders chrome books. I just don't see what a 3rd grader needs from a computer. They are still working on reading and spelling basic things.

We know we can't just put our heads in the sand, but we are very careful about what we let them get involved with and are quick to set limits and restrictions on their ability to use it.

Nonregdrummer09 said:

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https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/us/openai-chatgpt-suicide-lawsuit-invs-vis

Absolutely heart breaking and highly disturbing article to read about a young Aggie. Our young men and women just have exposure and access to things we never had to even think about or adapt to. What is the best way to handle something like this? My kids are still too young to use technology in any significant and unsupervised way, I just want to prepare them to decipher what's really happening and what is only real in their perception when things seem bad.

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You educate and catechize your kids as a community. The nuclear family isn't enough. Find your community where you're comfortable and see it through to the end. Integrate as you think they're ready, but they realistically don't need a phone at all til maybe middle school when you want to go on a date and leave them (make it a dumb one).

Expose them as they're ready and walk through it with them. Definitely no social media til late high school, it's completely unnecessary. Smart phone last two years, but nothing hands off, and no need to release if you still pay for the line in college.

If you plan to public school, forget about control. Whatever your kids friends' have or are exposed to, yours will be too. This goes for larger privates as well. Your relationship might be good if you have the right kid, but they may not want to be home depending on what your rules are.