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Vermont Cell Phone Ban

Ranb

Penultimate Amazing
Ranb
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Jul 25, 2003
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WA USA
A Vermont senator proposed a ban on cell phones for anyone under 21. He says they're more dangerous than guns
https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/10/politics/vermont-senator-cell-phone-ban-trnd/index.html
Rodgers, who represents the rural Essex-Orleans district, said the bill intentionally parallels the state's gun legislation. In it, he highlights the dangers of texting and driving and the role social media plays in bullying and suicide and suggests "mass shooters of younger ages" have used their phones to research previous shootings.
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Restricting access to information is never going to be popular.

He knows it won't make it past the judiciary committee.
"I'm not going to push for the bill to pass," he said. "I wouldn't vote for the thing. This is just to make a point."

That point: In Vermont, it's illegal for anyone under 21 to buy a firearm. Rodgers suggested that the same age restrictions should apply to cellphone use.
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Posturing is usually a waste of time in my opinion.

The bill text; https://legislature.vermont.gov/Documents/2020/Docs/BILLS/S-0212/S-0212 As Introduced.pdf

Based on the attitudes of people like this sponsor, it is only a matter of time before the age of majority or the voting age is raised to 21.

Ranb
 
One may as well ban driving for people under 21.

My phone automatically refuses all calls and will not alert me to texts when I'm driving. I don't know whether this is due to speed, or to the Bluetooth connection to the car itself, but it seems to me that connecting it to speed would be a reasonable solution. Don't bother me at all by default, if I actually want to talk while driving, it has to be via bluetooth. And this sort of distraction is hardly restricted to teens - I've seen a particularly amazing man eating with one hand, while holding a cell phone to his ear with another, while speeding down the Mass Pike (which, if you've been around Boston...).

But that's just my knee-jerk reaction. banning cell phones for anyone under 21 is a political stunt, meant to draw attention to an issue more than anything else.
 
You know politicians I don't think you've achieved the level of easy efficiency necessary to be wasting time passing "metaphor votes I know won't go anywhere."

Jesus Christ if we can keep passive aggressiveness out of anything can it be our legislative processes?
 
Mumbles said:
One may as well ban driving for people under 21.

My phone automatically refuses all calls and will not alert me to texts when I'm driving. I don't know whether this is due to speed, or to the Bluetooth connection to the car itself, but it seems to me that connecting it to speed would be a reasonable solution. Don't bother me at all by default, if I actually want to talk while driving, it has to be via bluetooth. And this sort of distraction is hardly restricted to teens - I've seen a particularly amazing man eating with one hand, while holding a cell phone to his ear with another, while speeding down the Mass Pike (which, if you've been around Boston...).

But that's just my knee-jerk reaction. banning cell phones for anyone under 21 is a political stunt, meant to draw attention to an issue more than anything else.
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I saw an idiot doing a crossword puzzle while driving on a freeway.
 
I'm kind of amused by American standards.

You'd trust a 15 year old with a 2,000 lb heavy machine but get queasy when they buy condoms?
Trust 17 year olds to serve your country overseas but won't let them drink fermented malt barley.

I think this 21+ cell phone nonsense is out of line.
 
Venom said:
I'm kind of amused by American standards.

You'd trust a 15 year old with a 2,000 lb heavy machine but get queasy when they buy condoms?
Trust 17 year olds to serve your country overseas but won't let them drink fermented malt barley.

I think this 21+ cell phone nonsense is out of line.
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Gotta agree with you there.
 
Venom said:
Trust 17 year olds to serve your country overseas....
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As far as I know, a person can join the military in the USA while still 17, but can't deploy overseas until they are 18.
 
Mumbles said:
My phone automatically refuses all calls and will not alert me to texts when I'm driving. I don't know whether this is due to speed, or to the Bluetooth connection to the car itself, but it seems to me that connecting it to speed would be a reasonable solution. Don't bother me at all by default, if I actually want to talk while driving, it has to be via bluetooth.
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How would your phone know if you were driving or just a passenger? Or on a bus or train?
 
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The day a state senator doesn't say something crazy, is the day I eat my computer.
 
erlando said:
How would your phone know if you were driving or just a passenger? Or on a bus or train?
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It doesn't. It is a "do not disturb" setting that you can either manually switch on and off or have it so the phone attempts to detect when you are driving and it automatically engages the mode.
 
Darat said:
It doesn't. It is a "do not disturb" setting that you can either manually switch on and off or have it so the phone attempts to detect when you are driving and it automatically engages the mode.
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Meanwhile, I spent half an hour yesterday trying to figure out why my phone was sending my calls directly to voicemail. Worse, there was no record of missed calls or voicemails for the calls I made to my own phone. Googled it and found discussion groups that said to toggle the "do not disturb" setting on and off. I didn't have a setting like that, but I had an airplane mode. I turned it on and then off - and my calls now actually ring.

No idea where my phone got the notion to just not alert me to calls.
 
Coming at this from another angle I do think, sooner or later, we'll see a Constitutional (or at the very least some sort of broad legal) challenge on any and all age restrictions that will attempt (to what degree it will be successful is of course largely the point) to define a definitive "You are an adult at this point" age and null/void all the others.

Yes the fact that 17/18 year old can join the military but not buy a beer or a cigar is a goddamn disgrace.
 
The one time I've really wanted to ban cell phones has been while working in high schools. Just as with adults they're an addiction. Maybe the solution is to use them as a platform for lessons. But in the meantime they're a distraction. You can have strict policies but the temptation is always there.

A teacher got in trouble for jamming signals - it turned out to be illegal -but I totally got where he was coming from.
 
Loss Leader said:
Meanwhile, I spent half an hour yesterday trying to figure out why my phone was sending my calls directly to voicemail. Worse, there was no record of missed calls or voicemails for the calls I made to my own phone. Googled it and found discussion groups that said to toggle the "do not disturb" setting on and off. I didn't have a setting like that, but I had an airplane mode. I turned it on and then off - and my calls now actually ring.

No idea where my phone got the notion to just not alert me to calls.
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Airplane mode turns off all transmissions so it wouldn't receive calls or data while active. How would it know you got a call when it isn't listening to your service?
 
Ranb said:
Based on the attitudes of people like this sponsor, it is only a matter of time before the age of majority or the voting age is raised to 21.
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I think you're reading that completely backwards. He doesn't want to introduce an age limit for phones, he wants to lower (or get rid of) the age limit for guns.
 
Squeegee Beckenheim said:
I think you're reading that completely backwards. He doesn't want to introduce an age limit for phones, he wants to lower (or get rid of) the age limit for guns.
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Perhaps. But a quick look at the bills he is sponsoring does not indicate anything like that yet. He is pro-gun though.
 
It's an amendment. It can go away like the 18th did when the 21st was passed. :)
 
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