Do kids really need their own cell phones?

[SandyCo]

My kids didn't get cell phones until they got part time jobs to pay for them. I didn't see the point, and this is back before texting got so popular. I still don't think that a ten or eleven year old needs one.

[emailvasally]

My dd (13) has a prepaid. We got it for her for xmas last yr because of her flying from tx to va by herself. she had begged for one for awhile and dh finally convinced me it was time. She pays for her own minutes out of allowance and gift money. I was worried at first but it really comes in handy just like other posters have said. between sports, wanting to go in a different store at the mall, walking home from school, etc It makes life so much easier and gives her a little more freedom. When she goes for a jog around the neighborhood i'm not on edge and she doesnt have to check in every 10 min.

on the other hand.... sometimes I cannot believe how many kids have these expensive blackberries I phones and others. one of her friends went through 3 razors last yr. that friend lives in a trailer. My dh keeps talking about how she wants one of the nice phones and I just simply tell her the day she is old enough to sign a contract and has a job, she can buy one. In the meantime I show her our phone statements, how much it costs when you go over minutes and break it down to how many hours you have to work based on a salary.

eventually she'll get it.

[drjones96]

We got our daughter one when she was 9. I was initially against it in principle. But really it has only added $10/mo to our bill so it's not like an extreme extravagance. Since grandma lives in the next state and they like to talk to each other it's free because they have the same provider and it's unlimited cell-to-cell. Also when we lived in Fort Worth it the neighborhood was a little shady at times so the rule was she had it on her at all times when she was out in the neighborhood and when she was walking to and from school. It was also a rule that she check in with us when she got to school property to make sure she made it there without a problem and also that she call us when she got out to let us know she was walking home. So it serves as a security measure.

Problems: She's on phone # 4 in year 2.

1. The first phone did ok but it fell out of her pocket when she was riding her bike and behaved oddly for the next 6 months until it eventually crapped out.

2. So we had to get another which was an old one of my wife's that she saved the last time she got an upgrade....3 months later and it was trashed. (this wasn't exactly her fault though)

3. Then we got a replacement from our provider....lasted 4 weeks before it was washed in a load of clothes...twice. It hadn't even shown up on the statement yet. But we managed to dry it completely out and get it working again....amazingly. But when we went to see grandma over thanksgiving she left it there.

4. While we were trying to get phone number 3 dried out one of our neighbors gave her an old one to replace it in case it stopped working....which it's trying to right now because the mic isn't picking up her voice very well as a result of getting wet.

She doesn't text. She doesn't over do it on the minutes. She doesn't talk to people she's not supposed to (I know because I check the call records). But she's hell on the phones themselves. From now on if a phone gets killed because of her irresponsibility it's on her dime.

[Coldjensens]

Our kids have them becuase we got a family plan and it really did nto cost any more for them. The high school kids use them a lot. It is hard to find a pay phone when you need a ride. The younger ones pretty much just lose their phones or forget to charge them. They seem to use the camera and MP3 functions a lot more than the phones. We do not allow texting it costs too much.

It is my understanding that the phones all have GPS locaters in them so you can determine where your kids are. I am not sure how this feature works however.