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My son who is only 12 says almost every kid in his class has a smartphone so they can reach their parents.
I told my son, when I was 12. The only time I call my parents is if I was in trouble or I was hurt.
My son has near perfect attendance like me when I was his age. His generation having a smartphone is like having a best friend.
Now, I don't think it's healthy to be constantly on the web or interacting with these devices for more than 5 hours a day. I think it leads to addiction and the withdraw symptoms such as kids being disinterest in regular family activities.
My wife wants me to give him a device so he can reach us if something is wrong. I said the school has phones for free at the office. So I don't think there's a "need" to give my son one yet. Maybe when he's 16 and he regularly goes out with friends.
I want my children to be tech savvy. Only my youngest does not have a phone. They all have one from 8 upwards.
This does not mean unlimited time on them or complete access to everything.
To me the appropriate age is whenever they start spending time without adult supervision (like say coming home from school to a parent-free house, walking alone to friend’s house, meeting friends at a park to hang out, etc.)
If they are old enough and trusted enough to do those things, they should be old enough to start practicing good smart phone judgment. You can start them with a few apps and scale up as you see fit. There are apps that let you monitor cell phone use if you are so inclined.
I would say sometime during middle school seems right.
Remember they can easily access porn on smartphones as well as change their brain due to the dopamine release every time they play games. And bullying, etc. Smartphones aren't made well for parents to monitor. Kids figure it out faster then we do.
A dumb phone with texting ability is plenty for anyone pre-HS...and maybe later depending on the kid.
He's probably not fibbing about almost every kid having one. You cannot judge it based on what you used to do. Times have changed. Most all middle-schoolers have them here. You put filters and limits on them and check it regularly, just like you do anything else they have.
Sure, you could get him a dumb or flip phone, but most of my friends either use a hand-me-down smart phone or just add one to the family plan because it's cheaper and easier to monitor.
My son's church youth group activities are coordinated through text and email. His sports team info is communicated through apps and text.
For kids, it's not just a game and social media device anymore.
What's funny is that my son actually never used a regular telephone or dumb phone. I haven't had a regular phone in the house for many years.
He does tell me a lot of kids in his school use the smartphones to watch porn and adult stuff.
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