I really appreciate their approach to 'free range' children but most kids with cell phones are not doing it just because they asked for one. It's because mom & pop want their kid to be able to communicate their every movement and be tracked by a mapping app.
To really get a handle on this we need to figure out what is going on with helicopter parents, a phenomenon that predates cell phones by decades.
It is simple - whenever something happens to a child, parents are blamed super hard. Every single issue child has is parents fault.
Parents spend more time and effort actively parenting kids, much more then previous generations did. And in a put 99% of discussions, there is majority throwing scorn on parents in general. It is simple, parents are internalizing those lessons and do what out current society want from them.
Plus parents are not allowed good time or something for themselves. They have only duties. Note even motivations in this article - parents ts are compassionate toward kids or want easy way for themselves. It is plan to engineer more competitive kid.
What doesn't help is now so many people are even moreso on the stranger danger train than even a few years ago because of doomscrolling social media posts. Even if you aren't a helicopter parent, if you don't keep your kid attached to you, you risk a Karen calling CPS on you and getting a visit.
To really get a handle on this we need to figure out what is going on with helicopter parents, a phenomenon that predates cell phones by decades.