Stepdad refuses to pay for 16-year-old stepdaughter's phone after she mocked his 13-year-old son

His son barely speaks at the dinner table anymore because of this incident.

Should parents be required to pay for their misbehaving kids' smartphones? If you asked that question 15 years ago, the majority of people would think it's asinine for a teenager to require the most advanced cell phone technology, especially after they've proven they can't use it responsibly. I got a Nokia when I was 10 so that I could communicate with my parents in case of an emergency, text my friends within the limited number of texts per month, and play Tetris. I would definitely have had my phone taken away if I had gone over the allotted texts per month, let alone send cruel messages to my sibling. These days, kids will become social pariahs in middle school if they don't keep up with the latest social media trend, and that's because their parents are as addicted to their phones as their kids, and don't see anything wrong with their little angels having 14 hours of screentime. There's nothing worse than permissive parenting in an era where unfettered access to Instagram and TikTok at age 10 is the norm. 

The dad in this story saw firsthand how social media can hurt his kid, even within his own home. His stepdaughter posted a video to her private story that wasn't meant to be seen by any family members. Her stepbrother saw it, and it hurt him deeply. Now, her stepdad has to decide if he's going to punish her by refusing to pay for her phone.