Digital gurus raise their children without a screen

PALO ALTO, CA. – The professor, armed with a colored chalk, adds fractions in the large wax-up, framed by rustic wood, which covers the front wall of the clbadroom. Fourth grade children, ages 9 and 10, do their bookkeeping in the office with pencil and leaves. The clbad is lined with papers: messages, schedules, student work. None left behind printer. Nothing, not even textbooks, that children make themselves by hand, was made by computer. In this clbad, there is no detail that could be disrupted in school memories of an adult who attended school in the last century. But we are in Palo Alto. The heart of Silicon Valley. Epicenter of the digital economy. Home to those who think, produce and sell the technology that is transforming 21st century society.

Schools around the world are striving to introduce computers, tablets, interactive whiteboards and other technological wonders. But here at the Waldorf of Peninsula, a private school where the children of Apple, Google and other technology giants around the old farmhouse in San Francisco are educated, a screen is not coming in. before arriving at high school.

"We do not believe in the black box, the idea that you put something in a machine and a result comes out without you understanding what is going on.If you make a perfect circle with a computer, you lose the # 1. human being who tries to achieve this perfection, the emotions are triggered by learning, and it is the humans who produce them, not the machines, the creativity is essentially human, if you place a screen on a young person child, you limit their motor skills, their tendency to develop, their abilities.There is not much certainty in all this, we will have the answers in 15 years, when these children will be adults, but we want to take the risk ? "Asks Pierre Laurent, father of three, an IT engineer at Microsoft, Intel and several startups, and now chairs the school's board of directors.

His words illustrate what is starting to be a consensus among Silicon Valley elites. Adults who understand mobile technology and apps better want their kids to get away from it. The benefits of screens in early education are limited, while the risk of addiction is high.

The pioneers understood this from the beginning. Bill Gates, creator of Microsoft, has limited the screen time of his children. "We do not have the phones on the table when we eat and we did not give them cell phones before the age of 14," he said in 2017. "At home, we limit the use of technology to our children, "said Steve Jobs, creator of Apple, in an interview in the New York Times in 2010, in which he badured that he forbade to his offspring use his newly created iPad. "On the scale between candy and crack, it's closer to crack," said Chris Anderson, former director of Wired magazine, bible of digital culture, in The New York Times.

Laurent, who did not give a mobile phone to his grandson before the ninth year (14 or 15 years), warns of a dangerous change in the economic model that he has witnessed in his professional life. "Anyone creating an app wants its use to be easy to use," he says. "This is true from the beginning, but we wanted at first that the user be happy to buy the product. Now, with smartphones and tablets, the business model is different: the product is free, but the data is collected and stored. " Therefore, the current goal is to allow the user to spend more time in the application, in order to collect more data or to put more ads. The reason is that the user spends as much time as possible. They are designed for that. "

The problem of the relationship between children and technology is that the dizzying pace at which they are transformed makes it difficult to think and study. A survey by Common Sense Media, a non-profit organization "dedicated to helping children develop in a world of media and technology," gives an idea of ​​the speed of change: American children from zero to eight years old are past. 2017, on average 48 minutes a day before the mobile phone, three times more than in 2013 and 10 times more than in 2011. "When did all this fury of smartphones start?" Asked María Álvarez, vice president of the organization. "It's only 12 or 13. And the first few tablets even less, it takes a lot of research to determine the impact of this exposure to screens on young children, but some studies are starting to see a relationship between this technology and some educational milestones, offering guidance that parents should consider. "

A study published in January of this year in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics found that a longer delay before screening at two and three years was badociated with delays in children who reached milestones of development two years later. Other studies relate to the excessive use of cell phones among teens in need of sleep, the risk of depression and even suicide. The Academy of Pediatricians of the United States issued some recommendations in 2016: avoid the use of screening screens for children under 18 months; only quality content and viewing with parents, for children aged 18 to 24 months; one hour a day of quality content for children ages two to five; and, from age six, consistent limits on duration of use and content.

Sometimes setting limits is not easy for working parents. And this leads to a redefinition of the meaning of the digital divide. Until recently, the concern was that richer children had an advantage to access the Internet before. Today, according to Common Sense Media, in the United States, 98% of households with children have a mobile phone, compared to 52% in 2011. When technology is widespread, the problem is reversed: families with high power They easier to prevent their children from spending the day in front of their mobile phone. While the elite children of Silicon Valley are raised among slates and wooden toys, those of the lower and middle clbades grow glued to screens.

According to a Common Sense Media study, teenagers from low-income households spend more than two hours and 45 minutes a day more on screens than those living in high-income households. Other studies indicate that white children are much less exposed to screens than blacks and Hispanics.

The gap is even seen within Silicon Valley. By driving 15 minutes north of the Waldorf of Peninsula, center whose workforce is about $ 30,000 a year, you arrive at the Hillview Public School. The first only introduces the screens as the second. The second announces a program allowing each student to have an iPad. In the first, the visitor receives a rustic scarecrow located in a garden that students cultivate. In the second, an LED screen that displays the ads of the day.

"How many working families can afford to completely remove their children from their screens?" Asks Alvarez, Common Sense Media. "I do not think it's realistic for most households, I have a 12-year-old son and a 6-year-old son, I do not know how many times they jumped to the ground screaming like crazy if I take them as a mother and I know it's not easy. "

Workers from large technology companies met last year as part of an initiative called The Truth About Technology. Its goal is to convince companies of the need to introduce ethical metrics into the design of tools used daily by billions of people, including children. "Computer engineering has long been a very technical task, and the impact it would have on people, let alone children, was not clear," explains Pierre Laurent. "There was no awareness that you had to deal with ethics, something that happens, for example, if you work in the medical sector, there has never been any code of ethics. 39, clear ethics in technology. "

It's an unequal struggle. Multitasking parents against teams of engineers and psychologists who design technologies to keep their children hooked. But something is starting to change. The tech giants, increasingly questioned in their trade and privacy policies, are beginning to introduce changes in their products, timid exceptions to the sacrosanct principle of increased attention.

Last year, Jana Partners and CalSTRS (California Teachers' Pension Fund), two major investors of Apple, jointly holding nearly $ 2 billion of stock, sent an open letter to leaders of the Cupertino, asking them to take more action against children's dependence on mobile phones. "We have reviewed the evidence and believe that there is clearly a need for Apple to provide parents with more options and tools to help them ensure that younger consumers use your skills." products optimally, "they wrote.

Apple reacted by introducing Screen Time, a new tool to control and limit the use of mobile. Google has integrated a similar tool, Digital Wellbeing. For critics, these are just patches that do not attack the underlying problem: the addictive nature of the products. Until this is resolved, parents will be responsible for guiding their children in this world of uncertain potential.

"We encourage parents to be more proactive in finding content," says Alvarez. "The key is how we learn to balance, to profit, to limit use and to know that for their physical and mental health, there must be moments in the family where nothing happens. is used and dine without a phone, without a device constantly interrupting by notifications.We also recommend sharing devices and talking with children about what they see, and the model we are for our children is important mobile, justifying that it is for work, what message do we transmit? "

Mobile nannies, prohibited by contract

Silicon Valley's obsession with chasing children out of technology transcends the walls of the clbadroom. When children leave school, they try not to touch or see the screens. The practice of requiring nurses to sign "contracts without a mobile phone" is becoming more prevalent in the families of senior executives of the valley's technology companies.

"I worked in homes where I had to leave my mobile phone at the security checkpoint every time I went there," says Janie Martinez, a nanny in the area for 15 years. "I could not look at the phone during all my workday and the kids could not see the screens during the time they were with me, that's crazy."

Martinez has worked in "high-level" families in the world of technology, including that of Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, he says. Work that, in the most extreme cases, can be paid for up to $ 100,000 a year. "The more the families are known, the more they are worried about this issue," he said. "They did not want their children to watch a screen and, by contract, they prevented me from using the phone, which I find frustrating as guardians." We need our cell phone in case emergency, not only for the parents of the children, but also for our own families. "

Syma Latif, director of the Bay Area Sitters, which places 200 health care providers in the Silicon Valley region, confirms this trend. "Whenever we see more families that include these stipulations in the contracts, it is undoubtedly very common," he says. "When we talk about screen time and nannies, there are two aspects to take into account: your screen time and that of the child, the contracts usually include something of close, but it's one thing to say: it's my son and I. You only have screen time at times. "That's fine, as you work for this nobody. The gray area starts when your screen time is dictated. Does the employer have the right to tell you that you can not be at the same time? What happens if you have a child in school and you need access to the phone if you need to be located or if a parent at home needs help? "

Some parents go even further. They walk around the parks in search of housekeepers who watch their cell phones while taking care of each other's children. When they think they find them, they photograph and denounce them by groups of mothers on the Internet. They are the "babysitter spies". There are sites like Yo Vi in Tu Niñera in which these photos are shared.

"This is often happening in parks," says Anita Castro, who has 10 years of experience as a caregiver. "They do not even know us, they take a picture, put it on social networks and ask:" Is this your nanny? "But they do not know we can communicate with parents, and I'm not a nanny or a family member." In some jobs where I felt guarded, I realized that There were cameras in the house and even the children were looking at me: I looked at the time and they asked me if I was sending messages and who had this conversation with their parents, who had told them asked to tell them if I was on the phone. "