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I can't believe that parents prefer to wait for legislation to ban smartphones instead of refusing to buy one for their offspring. I get the network effect of having all the other kids with phones but at the same time if that is the only motivation for buying one for your kid then you must not care that much about their dangers.
I think the thing I've seen oft repeated is that if all the other kids have phones too, by depriving your child of one, you're essentially dooming them to being an outcast of their peers because most socialising happens via the phone.
Given the amount of parents who are happy to buy their kids alcohol and GTA videogames I wonder if the social pressure would vanish overnight.
Oh absolutely not, it would probably need to be a generational change in order for it to stand a chance of being effective, Pandora's box is already open for the current generation of kids
I don't think the network effect is the only factor to consider here. Kids are at real risk of social ostracization and bullying by their peers if they do not have a smartphone. And that's dangeous in of itself.
I'm not sure if the dangers of being ostricised and bullied are more significant than the dangers presented by owning a smartphone. Either way, I don't think it's a simple decision for a parent to make.
I think that qualifies as being a severe network effect. Point taken though. In those cases would recommend the parents spend 5 minutes configuring the parental controls before handing the phone over.