For a 90% global drug crisis comparison: Also when I was a kid my parents generally didn't let us eat sugar. They were fine if we ate sugar at a friends but they didn't themselves buy sugary cereals or ice cream or candy or soft drinks (except for special occasions like birthdays).

As a kid I hated it and it made me feel like my family was weird. I can only think of one friend growing up that didn't have soft drinks in their house and his mom was a registered dietician. I'll have to ask my folks sometime if they fielded complaints from other parents.

And, yes, the comparison of today to the 90s is not apples to apples. There are legitimate safety reasons why kids today need cell phones. In the 90s there were pay phones everywhere and that is no longer true.

But I assume parental controls on today's cell phones let parents block all apps but Contacts/Dialing/Messaging if they want to.