I think it’s pretty clear that they are somehow buying the service, or there would be no issue. I believe they can get a prepaid phone card, which is apparently not a contract.

Also – and I could be wrong about this – I believe you can get an unlocked phone and connect it to the internet off of WiFi without a phone contract. You wouldn’t be able to make or receive calls or texts, but you could access the internet.

Maybe you’re right, maybe not. Either way I can’t get worked up about it. Either the kids will sort things out or they won’t. Just like everything else.

Since nearly nearly leaving this life I’m ever more inclined to indifference to a whole lot of things.

Apparently they can. See also this.

There are ways to do it without cutting off the internet. See this, for example.

Ironically, I now find some commercials more interesting than the programs.

The Atlantic has another article about smart phones and kids here. Some of the effects — isolation, no dating or sex, no rush to drive — were common in bookish kids in earlier generation, but then, we had books and could build something out of that.