I think you might have missed the part that my son is also my wife’s adopted brother and grew up with her. He’s not a FC that has been placed in our home through typical channels. And yes we will continue to use parental controls to limit his screen time and also monitor his use of social media in order to teach him what is and isn’t appropriate use of them, because thankfully that isn’t against the law in my state.

I know this because I’ve looked it up and I speak to our case manager frequently about the things happening with our child and he praises us for being so involved.

This 14 year old does not need free reign of the internet and all its capabilities to connect him with random people let alone social media algorithms that he isn’t nearly prepared to navigate on his own. He has ADHD, PTSD, Reactive Attachment Disorder (birth mom) and had Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.

You might have also missed the part that his issues are severe enough that he not only has an IEP but also had a one on one Educational Assistant for all of 8th grade. His IEP is completely based on his social, organizational and impulse control skills.

Academically he is fully capable of comprehension of any subject he sets his mind to. But according to his therapist and psychiatrist his deficits severely impact his ability to control his impulses, more so than a typical teen in their opinion.

Now does that sound like a young adult I can just teach good values to after building a relationship with him and say “ok bud here ya go, hopefully you grasp the values we’ve tried to teach you in the last 2 years, good luck!”? “Oh and if you fail and end up on a sex offenders list because you make a terrible decision and send or receive child pornography from or to one of your classmates, well that’s on you”.

Because to me that just sounds like lazy laissez faire parenting.