This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
I don't really see phones as a problem, it's the rampant social media and ads that are the problem and unfortunately it's too intertwined with society/technology to undo it at this point.
This is a magnificent idea, and will make the quality of children's lives absolutely better.
Just give your kid a decade old budget
Yea, which wouldn't be a smartphone then probably.
Depends on what you call "budget phone". If the criteria is the same as today (sub 300-200 USD) then there are loads of smartphone options.
Here are a bunch of decade old phones that were around 150 USD. https://newatlas.com/best-budget-smartphones-2014/33367/
If you want a cheap non smartphone phone then you could just buy a dirt cheap new one if you wanted.
Sure. Then again, if the goal of getting your kid a phone is so that they won't be ostracized, I'm not sure if a dumbphone will help with that.
Kids in some parts of USA were shunned at some point because the messages they send get the wrong colored bubble. I.e. those losers are using Android phones instead of Apples.
Things like this make me think that the solution has to be forced on all children. Or their parents, more like.
