"So parents being able to keep track of their kids location isn't a good thing?
Parents being able to contact their kids anytime, and kids being able to contact the the r parents anytime.
What about people of all ages being able to contact others in an emergency?"

These statements amply illustrate the amount of insecurity in the society.With so much distrust life is miserable. Parents did not keep track of their wards in the past. Now we have to fix cameras at homes,offices and many other places to feel secure.What a great life and society we have now? Loving fellowmen can only bring a sense of security.Let us move towards that. Development without human values is a dangerous thing, indeed.

Dear Critic,

«Just think of the crime that would ensue without security cameras.»

Assuming your are unwilling to re-employ human night watchmen.

There may be anecdotal advantages to security cameras, but I could easily write a full page about the woes caused by them.

Crimes exist because there are criminally-minded individuals on the one hand, along with others who deserve to suffer as their "victims". Security cameras tend to some extent to divert the criminals away from locations which have them - towards other locations which do not. Overall suffering will never diminish by wilful schemes.

«Have mobile phones hijacked society?
Would the world be a better place without mobile phones?»

Yes, and Ezhil already gave you several reasons, to which I can add many others.

Again, you could always bring in anecdotal cases where hikers were lost in the bush and managed to call for help. Bad luck, but as far as I am concerned, this is not a good enough justification for all innocent people having to wear the equivalent of anklet monitors, close enough to Orwell's 1984 "telescreen" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telescreen).

«And again I think that if you take away the bad aspects that they can bring, that you also take away the good aspects that they can bring.»

Yes, and a fair price to pay.

«but suddenly just saying that I feel like the e-safety commissioner looking for content to censor.»

Well this may be one difference between myself and Ezhil:

While we both understand that the latest technology brings more suffering than joy, I will never contemplate forcing people out of it against their will. If someone asks for my advice then I advise them to stay away from these harmful gadgets as much as they can, but otherwise that is not my place, it is not my job to "fix" them and people usually need to learn from their own mistakes.

I now look and appreciate Ezhil's last post (Monday, 8 December 2025 10:46:15 AM):

Yes, a fear-based society is not worth having.
Replace that with love, if you can, but at least do no harm.

"These statements amply illustrate the amount of insecurity in the society"

No it doesn't.
You don't lock your doors at night because you hate outsiders, you look you doors at night because you love and protect the people inside.
It's not about controlling your kids, it's about being responsible and not knowing other peoples intentions.

It's not about being distrustful of your own kids but being distrustful of others to protect your kids.

You can live in a fantasy world where you believe everyone has good intentions, but then you have to come back to reality and realise you have no control over what others do, and you still have to protect your kids from harm regardless.

This isn't being controlling or paranoid, its being responsible.

You can say I hate cinema, I hate mobile phones, but they are not going anywhere so complaining like you think you can change things is ridiculous.
They are not going to ban TV and mobile phones end of story, learn to live with it.
And if your real issue is human values, focus on that.

And my example was only one that I thought of in 2 mins.

Lets go back to the doctor, on call.
One of your parents has a health emergency and needs immediate treatment.
Doctors out to lunch with his new girlfriend and can't be contacted.
'Sorry but your parent has passed away'.

Your dream of returning to a world without tv or mobile phones is just pure fantasy.

Try taking others TV or phones away, and they are likely to attack you and you might need to see the doctor.

Just wait till this social media ban kicks in in a few days.
Some parents will get bashed by their own kids.

The world is not kumbaya, no matter how much you dream of it.

Dear Ezhil,

I perfectly understand your last post.
Indeed, a life of fear and distrust is a life of misery.
Yet, this is the state of life on earth in this era and sadly for millennia to come.
And nothing we do can change it,
nothing we do can fundamentally change society et large,
and nothing we say can change the guilty minds habituated to fear.
Only a select few may understand, then strive hard to kick that bad habit
and trust God instead.
Even then, once we do understand, it may still take decades if not lifetimes to heal.

Meanwhile, we should concentrate on our own freedom as a small minority,
that at least those of us who do not wish to have or use these harmful gadgets should be able to live without them
and also retain the freedom to protect our offspring from their evil influence.
- Not an easy call.

Moving towards idealism should be the goal of any civilized society.we may not achieve it within a short span of time. But we must contribute our mite to change the undesirable aspects of the society. Let optimism take precedence over pessimism that says that things will not change for the better. Let us not mourn our fate and keep quiet. Making newer laws and inventing newer gadgets to control will not bear fruit. Only when society changes qualitatively we can see silver lining in the horizon

Dear Yuyutsu,
I thank you for your scientific Outlook. Let us not get deterred by pessimists's outbursts. On this positive note I think we can wind up the discussion on this topic.