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Cellphones Technology

Child Drownings In Germany Linked To Parents' Obsession With Mobile Phones (theguardian.com) 172

Posted by BeauHD from the phone-fixation dept.
The German Lifeguard Association (DLRG) has made a direct connection between children getting into difficulty in the water and parents being too busy on their mobile phones to notice. More than 300 people have drowned in Germany so far this year. The Guardian reports: "Too few parents and grandparents are heeding the advice: when your children and grandchildren are in the water, put your smartphone away," Achim Wiese, the DLRG's spokesman, said. "We're experiencing on a daily basis that people treat swimming pools like a kindergarten and simply don't pay attention," added Peter Harzheim of the German federation of swimming pool supervisors. "In the past, parents and grandparents spent more time with their children in the swimming pool. But increasing numbers of parents are fixated by their smartphones and are not looking left or right, let alone paying attention to their children," he told German media. "It's sad that parents behave so neglectfully these days." The organization also put some blame on the school system for not making swimming lessons required from an early age. "Budget cuts have also led to swimming pools shortening their opening times," adds The Guardian.
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Child Drownings In Germany Linked To Parents' Obsession With Mobile Phones More

Child Drownings In Germany Linked To Parents' Obsession With Mobile Phones

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  • Obvious solution (Score:5, Funny)

    by war4peace ( 1628283 ) on Thursday August 16, 2018 @02:17AM (#57135628)

    Stop taking kids to the pool. Ain't nobody got time for that shit!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      Stop taking kids to the pool. Ain't nobody got time for that shit!

      Look, I regularly drop the kids off at the pool, at least once a day and I'm not going to bloody stop.

    • Parent post's intention was to become +5 Funny.
      Epic Fail, I guess.

  • Must be multiple reasons ... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by gordguide ( 307383 ) on Thursday August 16, 2018 @02:42AM (#57135700)

    300 children drowning deaths over just a few months (summer) is an extraordinarily high number by my local and national standards. There must be more to it than just negligent parents using cellphones.

    Canadian parents use smartphones as much as anyone in a first-world country. Below is a comparison with Germany

    Note: I did not find specific data on children only in Germany, so we are comparing the news story's 300 over summer with Canada's annual numbers.

    Format: Germany // Canada

    Population (2018 estimate to Wed Aug 16)
    82,315,335 // 36,992,745
    Population Ratio:
    2.22:1

    Children Drowning Deaths Age 0~19
    300 (?) // 68

    Children Drowning Deaths Age 5~14
    300 (?) // 17

    **
    Expected number of deaths in Germany with adjustment for equivalent population (2.22 multiplier) at Canada's rate:
    Age 0-19: 151
    Age 5~14: 38

    Deaths per age group 5~14 by ype of waterbody:
    Unsupervised pools, lakes, rivers: 16
    Lifeguarded pools, lakes, beaches: 1

    So obviously it isn't just parents on smartphones that is the root cause. Canadian children have massive opportunity to enter water ... more freshwater than any country on earth, and using my city as an example* numerous city swimming / wading facilities. So opportunity for drowning certainly exists. Germany should explore overall water safety issues that obviously exist rather than focusing on a somewhat sensationalist "cause" that may or may not be valid.

    • MIssing footnote from previous post:

      * A dozen indoor/outdoor municipal lifeguarded pools and about 80 non-lifeguared (two staff, but also indoor and outdoor playrooms and structures) municipal wading pools. An unknown number of private indoor and outdoor pools. Pop 230,000.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fazig ( 2909523 )
      Of course it's not just smartphones. But mentioning smartphones, something that almost every single person uses in these times, in the headline makes a way better clickbait than "Budget cuts have led to swimming pools shortening their opening times".
      Read the entire article to get an idea what it is about.
      Our mainstream media also tells me that budget cuts had negative effects on swimming classes in schools. There's a lack of teachers and parents who are interested in their children learning to swim. Public
      • So, what happened to parentsteaching their children to swim.....why must every teaching lesson be farmed out to "professionals"....?

        Sheesh....what do parents actually do WITH their kids these days?

        • The shuttle them to and from their professional lessons. Haven't you seen the whole, mom's a bus driver/chauffeur commercials?

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by fazig ( 2909523 )
          I can't answer that question in good faith.
          I can only tell you that swimming used to be a part of the mandatory sports curriculum in elementary, middle, and high school in Germany. Those children who couldn't already swim learned it in the 3rd grade at the age of 8 or 9. There might have been exceptions in areas where access to public or private pools was difficult. And then you had more stupid reasons like religion, where some parents denied their daughters the chance to learn swimming.

          At least this was

    • Canadian children have massive opportunity to enter water

      Surely you forgot to add, "They just have to bring a big axe to get through the thick ice layer on top first"

    • Another reason might be increasing immigration. Here in the Netherlands we've had several cases of children of refugees drowning; unlike those born & bred here who learn to swim at a young age, these kids haven't received much in the way of swimming lessons. Nevertheless they get into the pool when they see all their friends jump in.

      Young immigrant kids will generally receive swimming lessons at school, but older kids and adults have to arrange lessons themselves, and it's not all that cheap. Mayb

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Kinthelt ( 96845 )

        Pretty sure you nailed it. Here in Canada, the lifeguards have a tongue-in-cheek term for immigrant children: drowning victim.

        I honestly don't get it though: If you know your kid can't swim, why would you take them to the beach or a public pool? A certain amount of personal responsibility should lie on the parents. I understand that swimming lessons weren't a priority in their country of origin, so asking them to enroll their children in swimming lessons in their new country might be asking for much.

    • It was not 300 kids, it was 300 people.

      And most of them drowned because of stupid accidents. One jumped into a river, which was only 60cm deep. Many just jump into the water instead of "cooling off" first. And frankly: many can not swim and are to dumb to just walk around close to the shore.

      If it was not so sad, I would say: evolution at work.

    • The numbers have been misread. There wasn't 300 drowning deaths of children this year. It was 300 total deaths. Worth noting is that Germany and Canada don't differ much in the statistics here.

      Also worth noting is that deaths have been trending *down* for many years not up. This year is somewhat of an outlier as the year is only half through and it has almost matched the deathtoll from last year. That could probably also have to do with Central Europe recording almost double the number of "summer days" (a d

    • The piece I heard on NPR put a few more details into the story.

      One was that because it has been an unusually hot summer in Europe, many more people were going swimming in pools, rivers, beaches, etc; These are people that perhaps wouldn't normally swim. Many of them had little or no experience swimming. Now in the "old days" when parents or guardians would pay attentions to others in these activities, there wasn't as much of a risk, because people were watching. With the advent of smart phones, there

    • Canadian children have massive opportunity to enter water ... more freshwater than any country on earth

      Canada does not have the most [wikipedia.org] freshwater resources. They are 4th on the list behind Brazil, Russia and (just barely) the USA.

    • I bet a lot more people in Germany have swimming pools than in Canada.

  • Bad parents are bad. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bobstreo ( 1320787 ) on Thursday August 16, 2018 @02:44AM (#57135706)

    Doesn't matter if they're watching TV or posting/reading facebook.

    Other bad parents may leave their kids in a 120 degree car while they gamble in a casino, or attend a nice crack party.

    Bad parents may also forget the kid at a store, or library, or just leave a 5 year old home alone by themselves, so the bad parent can go on a weekend vacation.

  • ACCESSORIES (Score:4, Interesting)

    by xxxLCxxx ( 5220173 ) on Thursday August 16, 2018 @02:45AM (#57135708)
    This is not exclusive to Germans, of course:
    I have noticed that more and more young parents see their children as 'accessories', much like toys. In fact, this very morning I was asking myself whether this was a man calling his dog or a father shouting out to his son. I find myself wondering often about this. They use the same tone, the same language.
    On the other hand, you see persons talking to their dogs like they were people, constantly asking them questions as if they would respond, dressing them up, hugging and kissing them.
    I think that the smartphone underlines the fact that they only look at their kids when they don't have anything "better" to do. Accessories become boring eventually...

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Kokuyo ( 549451 )

      I herd my kids like they were animals, too. Because it works.

      Young children very much behave like animals. First step is training. The more they are able to profit from it, the more you switch over to teaching.

  • Right now, the second post on the first page is Fewer Than Half of Young Americans Are Positive About Capitalism [slashdot.org] with a timestamp of an hour and a half ago, despite almost all posts being much older--the first post is a day and a half older.

    What is happening?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Whibla ( 210729 )

      That topic was originally posted yesterday, and stimulated a spirited discussion.

      One imagines that the editors re-posted the whole discussion back to today's front page to allow more posters to see it (rather than having to browse to "Older News"), revisit it, or contribute to it.

      Unusual, I'll admit, but not a completely daft idea - it does seem to have garnered a few more responses since I read through it yesterday.

    • Slow news day. So slow it's retrograde.

  • Immigration brings lots of non-swimmers (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ffkom ( 3519199 ) on Thursday August 16, 2018 @03:34AM (#57135854)
    Over 2 million immigrants came to Germany since 2015, and relatively large part of their children never learned to swim - the rate was 21% vs. 12% in 2016, and probably did not improve since then: https://www.armut-und-gesundhe... [armut-und-gesundheit.de]

    But it is not only the children, also the adult non-swimmers are a problem - the press in Germany covered this topic repeatedly, for example: https://www.welt.de/vermischte... [www.welt.de]

    In addition, an estimated 2% of parents do not want their children to be educated in swimming at school for religious reasons, as they consider their visibility to others in this context as "sinful".
    • And what does this hate campaign have to do with pale, white boys drowning while their pale, white German mommies play with their smartphones?

    • Over 2 million immigrants came to Germany since 2015,
      That is a /. myth.

      2 million came to Europe, not Germany. I live in Germany ...

      • Ah, quick link [dw.com]

        In 2015 alone well over 1 million net in Germany: "The office registered in 2015 under two million immigrants arriving in Germany, while 860,000 departed again." If anything I'd assume the "over 2 million since 2015" to be very underestimated based on that.

        • Yeah, and why do you think a "quick link" reflects reality?
          Germany has 80million inhabitants.
          2million plus would be ~3% ....

          That means for 100 people on the street, there suddenly would be 3 extra.

          Sigh, I really wonder why people are so dumb.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by ffkom ( 3519199 )
            If you want to read the official government numbers, here is are links: Number for end of 2016: https://www.destatis.de/DE/Pre... [destatis.de]

            Some numbers (not as comprehensive as for 2016) for 2017: https://www.destatis.de/DE/Pre... [destatis.de]

            And yes, it is exactly like you said, for 100 people on the street, there are "suddenly" (as in "over ~2 years") 3 more - what do you think why school gyms had to be recruited as shelters for the refugees for months?

            And how else could a previously rather irrelevant and small politica

            • 1.6M This is the total number of people seeking refugee in Germany, they immigrated here over the last 50 years, not during 2015/2016.
              So no, there was no sudden immigration wave of another 2M in recent years.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by dave420 ( 699308 )

      Two points:

      1. Germany received far less migrants than that
      2. These weren't immigrants.

      Your racism is especially lazy.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      In addition, there are parents in the U.S. who do not want their kids vaccinated against an STD, papillomavirus (HPV), for "religious" reasons, not necessarily part of the Anti-Vaccers wing-nuts. Apparently, allowing your kid to get cancer because of this virus is for a "religious" reason, as if rape and incest doesn't occur. I guess the feeling is that if the sprogs are vaccinated, they'll be out there screwing like rabbits and having a jolly time...both of which are to be prevented for "religious" reasons

      • HPV (Score:3)

        by sjbe ( 173966 )

        In addition, there are parents in the U.S. who do not want their kids vaccinated against an STD, papillomavirus (HPV), for "religious" reasons, not necessarily part of the Anti-Vaccers wing-nuts.

        This is true. This is a different brand of wing-nuts with different, though equally harmful reasoning regarding vaccines.

        Apparently, allowing your kid to get cancer because of this virus is for a "religious" reason, as if rape and incest doesn't occur.

        Who needs rape or incest? You just need a partner who previously slept with someone else already infected. Approximately 80% [clevelandclinic.org] of people are infected with some strain of the virus during their lifetime. Evidently their "logic" is that they think horny teenagers will be scared off from having sex because of the modest risk of contracting cancer someday in the distant future and that if t

  • GP isn't very accurate. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Qbertino ( 265505 ) <moiraNO@SPAMmodparlor.com> on Thursday August 16, 2018 @03:48AM (#57135880)

    Child drownings in Germany are linked to children not learning to swim anymore because baths are closing left, right and center and learning to swim isn't a collective basic skill anymore.
    Also fugitives from Afrika often don't know the concept of learning to swim.

    Parents addicted to their smartphone comes in on a far back 3rd or 4th on the list of reasons.

    The German press is full of this in the last year or so. Federal level is thinking about making swimming lessons mandatory again and public baths closing down due to lack of money is a problem discussed at federal level too.

    • Re:GP isn't very accurate. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Thursday August 16, 2018 @04:48AM (#57136032)

      Hardly. The German statistics are not really much different from neighbouring countries where swimming lessons are still mandatory. Actually last year the Netherlands drowning deathtoll was higher.

      Also worth noting is that drownings have been trending down for many years but his year was an outlier. Possibly something to do with also record setting warm days.

      • You are comparing apples and oranges. In the Netherlands, swimming is far more common. There is water everywhere, they go swim everywhere.

        • Re:GP isn't very accurate. (Score:4, Informative)

          by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Thursday August 16, 2018 @07:30AM (#57136512)

          You are comparing apples and oranges. In the Netherlands, swimming is far more common. There is water everywhere, they go swim everywhere.

          Errr no. Sorry not even remotely. The vast majority of the country is perfectly dry as far as ability to swim is concerned. Most people do not swim in the canals, and large numbers of lakes are off limits in summer due to algae, but rather people swim at a few usually crowded public pools or at a select few beaches, beaches where you will see a large number of cars with white licenseplates with a little D listed under the EU symbol.

          The Dutch do engage in a lot of water activities, but most of those do not take place in the water, rather on the water, or my favourite: trying to jump over water without getting wet.

        • True, you had better damn learn to swim in a country that averages below sea level.

          • Jokes aside there's very little water you can drown in in much of the country. Many drownings happen at the beach and in swimming pools. But that's why I along with everyone else pay 300EUR / year in dyke maintenance fees. Living 6m below sea level makes that money seem worthwhile.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by dave420 ( 699308 )

      As the drowned were not from Africa, mentioning that seems rather bizarre. You might as well mention the new flavours of Haribo, as that has just as much to do with it. Of course you won't, as racists gonna racist. "Fugitives" - grow up. You sound incredibly scared.

      • When I say fugetives I mean, ... guess what? ... fugitives. Families from Syria and the African savanna aren't exactly know for sending their kids to swim lessons. And why would they - they mostly live(d) in the desert anyway. I bet dollars to donuts that one of the most fascinating things for a family from North Nigeria is seeing a publicly accessible body of water and see others going for a dip and attempting the same. "How much water can you take in Germany?" Is a common question to tourist in rural Afr

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by porges ( 58715 )

          This may be a language difference as I don't know where you're from. In English, as far as I know, the word "fugitive" means a criminal who is running from the law. I think you mean the word "refugee", which doesn't have that meaning; that's just someone who's left their home because something bad has happened.

    • "baths are closing left, right and center "

      I find this very sad. As a child my friends and I spent lots of time and had lots of fun in the indoor swimming pool. Baths should be kept open, it gives children a place to go. Better a pool with a lifeguard then children going to unmonitored lakes.

  • We call it, "thinning the herd".

  • Of the 300 only about 20 were children (Score:4, Insightful)

    by gotan ( 60103 ) on Thursday August 16, 2018 @05:59AM (#57136250) Homepage

    The Guardian headline makes it seem like parents distracted by mobile phones was a major factor in the drownings.

    But according to the article:
    "Among the drownings have been more than 20 children under the age of 15, and 40 young women and men between the ages of 16 and 25."

    Here one can see statistics for 2016/2017:
    https://www.dlrg.de/presse/pm-... [www.dlrg.de]
    by age:
    https://www.dlrg.de/fileadmin/... [www.dlrg.de]
    by location:
    https://www.dlrg.de/fileadmin/... [www.dlrg.de]

    Note that most drownings happen in rivers and lakes. I think it likely that the nice 2018 summer led to more people swimming at outdoor locations, hence we see an alarming number of drownings. The statistics by age doesn't indicate that parents distracted by mobile phones are the major reason for drownings, and i doubt that changed in 2018.

    Nevertheless it is good advice to at least keep an eye on your child while it is in the water.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • what??? blaming nature for deaths!!?? no! man and his tech is evil, man causes all bad things. the world would be a paradise if man stopped using technology and energy! lifespan would go up! people would be healthier!

    • You are ignoring that they went out and saved lots of children successfully. Their observations are therefore not only based on the "few" deceased.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gotan ( 60103 )

        I commented on the Guardians misleading headline and intro:

        "Child drownings in Germany linked to parents' phone ‘fixation’
        Lifeguards warn parents to put phones away, after more than 300 people drowned this year"

        This makes it seem like a majority of the 300 people drowned due to negligent parents, which is simply wrong.

        It also suggests a society where parents are negligent of their children at a time when children are under more adult supervision than ever before. Also i don't see a real differen

        • No, it doesn't imply that. It just states that this can be dangerous and result in fatalities. The DLRG stepped up to have their warning made public. This is the intention. ;-)
  • Calling out cellphones seems questionable, it isn't like parents didn't have many distractions in the past they took to the beach.

  • Two articles (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    This mother's [washingtonpost.com] daughter almost drowned, because the mother stopped watching her for a short while.

    This article [mariovittone.com] says the symptoms of drowning are not obvious. The article quotes five statements. Quoted statements 3 and 4 say that when someone is drowning, it's impossible for them to raise their arms and wave. (I'm not a doctor or a psychologist, so I don't know if the article is right.)

  • There wouldn't be more drownings this year over last year because there's a record breaking heatwave this summer and thus more people swimming. No it's definitely because parents are looking at their phones way more than they were last year.

    I'm sure they have detailed statistics from previous years of how much time parents spent staring at their phones compared to this year to prove their "direct connection".

    • The point can be made without solid data. Besides this stuff never being definitive, you'd need years and 1000s of dead people before you could get strong data supporting this interpretation.

      I don't know how you adjust the numbers this year vs last year to compensate for the heat wave. The best I can think of is to try to identify how many drown due to a negligent parent. That is a hard number to gather because nobody wants to admit it; even to themselves! After that you have to find out if they will adm

  • "More than 300 people ..."

    How many were children?

    How many are there by this time on average?

    Of the ones who were children, how many had parents with them?

    They need to do their homework.

  • Why is it everyone except the lawmakers or product designers see how distracting these GD things are ?

    Normally, I would say let nature take its course and those that die off due to being distracted during critical moments in life deserve it.
    It tends to tidy up the gene pool a bit.

    However, the victims of this problem aren't always isolated to those who cause it. They have a tendency to impact anyone in the general area
    which is where I have a problem with it. It's no more the drowning child's fault for thei

  • Think of it as evolution in action.

  • FTFS

    The German Lifeguard Association has made a direct connection between children getting into difficulty in the water and parents being too busy on their mobile phones to notice. More than 300 people have drowned in Germany so far this year.

    But, FTFA

    Among the drownings have been more than 20 children under the age of 15, and 40 young women and men between the ages of 16 and 25.

    So, the VAST majority of the drownings are adults. Only about 6% children. so how are adults being on their phones causing kids to drown? The article makes NO link to cell phone use. Stupid article...

  • I have no detail or statistics but in our village, we see parents using smartphones while toddlers wander and try to cross road. Car/child accidents are only avoided by careful drivers.
    Also inside a cafe children in carry chairs are left in unsecure places (on a table!) while mother uses phone. That incident got a loud repost from onlookers when cot rocked and could have fallen off table.
    Smartphone addiction does cause accidents both of children and adults.
    Jaywalking problems near here in U

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