Quality Time Is A Copout. Politicians Are Trying To Make It Dangerous

BusinessPolicyQuality Time Is A Copout. Politicians Are Trying To Make It DangerousByJohn Tamny,Contributor.Follow AuthorMay 07, 2026, 05:00pm EDTVAIL, CO - JUNE 9, 2017: Two teenage boys use their smartphones as they sit on a bench in Vail, Colorado. (Photo by Robert Alexander/Getty Images)Getty ImagesWith kids, it’s all about quantity time. Parents intuitively know this because they know how much their kids value time with them. It’s a reminder that, as the title of this opinion piece indicates, a parental focus on “quality time” is a bit of a copout.About what you’ve just read, it shouldn’t be construed as an attack on parents for whom quality time is the only parental option. Some parents are legitimately stretched with work and other time constraints that render time with the kids a challenge. What you’re about to read isn’t a critique of them. At the same time, it is a critique of App Store Age Verification measures making their way not just through Congress, but in a variety of state legislatures across the country. Proposed App Store Age Verification laws are the legal manifestation of the false notion that the act of parenting can be mailed in, or limited to “quality time.” Implicit in the legislation is that governments, by writing laws, can save parents from the endlessly challenging work of parenting. If so, “big corporations” like Apple and Google will be forced to check the proverbial ID remotely to allegedly keep kids under certain ages from accessing apps and games that they shouldn’t necessarily be seeing, watching movies and television shows that are too old for them, along with receiving pictures and messages that well exceed their maturity level. It all sounds so great at first glance until we remember that parenting is full-time for a reason, and not just because kids and pre-teens require a lot of watching. It’s also through the quantity time approach to parenting that parents convey to their kids their values, but much more importantly, how mu...