"Safety" is how it was originally billed: your kids can call you if they get in trouble. They also created apps that let parents spy on where there kids were.

Like everything bad is normalized... step by step.

Using public transit with google maps is a night and day difference

I have no issue giving kids a utilitarian dumb phone that can send and receive basic text messages as well as make calls.

Giving them smartphones? Moronic idea at best.

Many kids start out with a 5G connected watch that can call and receive SMS. They tap it, boom they're talking to their parents.

They turn the kid into the weapon, the parents don't hear the end of it until they cave and buy the thing

So true, and all normal chats apps get more and more "social" sht incorporated, even Whatsapp has "stories" (Signal too btw). SnapChat is just completely shameless about it, integrating all the most addictive stuff found in all other apps.