My mother tried that. Her challenge was, that around age 12 or so I became smart enough to bypass her methods.

She would hide the router, I would find it, she would change settings in the router, I would change them back. She would hide cables etc for the computer, I would find them or even buy new ones.

She would hide my consoles or games, I would find them and then hide them from her in turn.

She tried to enforce TV limits, so I would wait until she slept to watch without sound and subtitles. She would put parental controls on TV, I would spend hours until I brute forced the PIN.

She even took my phone and I went and got myself a cheap one by saving up money.

What she never really tried was talking to me about it and asking me why I want this so much, then maybe I could have told her it is cause I don‘t have any friends and we don‘t have money to do anything else, she was at work and I was sat around alone bored out of my mind, so I want entertainment at least.

So my advice is, try talking to your kid and together find other activities they might enjoy and that you approve of, then probably the usage of tech would go down naturally.

A guy i listen to on the radio naned Jay Noone (from Free Talk Live) says most of a childs nural connections are made between birth and 6 years old and that exposure to screens during those years is about the same as doing nearly fatal amounts of drugs for adults. He suggests not letting your child have much screen exposure during that time and even goes so far as no tv except like once a week for the entire family.

My daughter is going into high school and she’s already getting involved with one of the extracurriculars… yeah it’s not really possible without her already having a cell. This is band and yet they expect the kids to have Microsoft Teams because that’s the official method for disseminating information.

F’n Teams… shudder…

I have younger kids. Theres a point of diminishing returns but right now we mostly only provide physical access during specific times (ie: Road trips).

Even TV we limit time on and manage what they can watch (ie: they cant just go find random things on youtube or even Netflix kids yet.)

There will be a point coming shortly where the fact that most other parents allow unfettered access means we will have to relent.

For example, my kids are WAY behind on the hand eye to play games on switch etc compared to some peers. And i cant just be like “git gud kid”

I’ve not got kids yet so not really helpful to your question. But I’ve seen enough of parents who just give their kids tablets and smartphones (Unfortunately in a couple examples I know, it’s because they can’t be bothered to parent). Not only do the kids end up getting hooked on the devices, but the content they’re consuming is… worrying.

It’s enough that my partner and I have already spoken about how we will try to raise ours. I don’t think complete isolation from tech is the answer, it can be a great learning tool after all.

But I’m going to make sure I use it with them in the earlier stages of life. They won’t just have their own devices, and they won’t be able to use it all the time. We’re going to promote reading and other activities, being outside, crafts etc - If they show an interest in STEM/STEAM stuff that’s cool, and tech can be used here - but it doesn’t have to be connected to the internet all the time. I can build little hobby electronics with them, we can set up Raspberry Pi’s, we can create stuff in software and even play games like Minecraft. But together, and in moderation.

Obviously we won’t be forcing them to only use tech with us, or watching over them super strict later on - but for the earlier parts of life? You can be sure their introduction to technology will be more than “Here’s a tablet, go play games and stop being a bother”