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My 11 year old almost never has it next to his ear. He uses headphones to listen to music and has it in his hands for texting and FaceTime with friends. His average number of cell minutes used a month is less than 5.
For those whose kids DO have cell phones do they remember to charge them or is that another parent responsibility?
I never thought a cell phone necessary for my 9 year old granddaughter but her alcoholic mother has forgotten to pick her up at the bus stop twice in the last week so she had to borrow another student's cell phone to call her dad (my son). His is the only number she has memorized. I'm considering getting her a prepaid flip phone but just wondering if she will remember to charge it regularly and put it in her backpack and that her mother won't take it.
My oldest is 8. We aren't at the "cell phone" stage yet. He's started visiting friends in the neighborhood. He rides his bike and is responsible about coming home on time. And it is always Point A to back home. Not Point A to ? to ? and then home. I'd consider it at 10 or so when playing with friends around the neighborhood is going to involve going to many different places. Google maps lets you share location - so in theory, I'd be able to find him in a pinch.
My oldest is 8. We aren't at the "cell phone" stage yet. He's started visiting friends in the neighborhood. He rides his bike and is responsible about coming home on time. And it is always Point A to back home. Not Point A to ? to ? and then home. I'd consider it at 10 or so when playing with friends around the neighborhood is going to involve going to many different places. Google maps lets you share location - so in theory, I'd be able to find him in a pinch.
My 7 year old goes from A to B to C to B to D to A all the time. The rule is he must have a parent text me to let me know he's arrived there. We have a standing rule in the neighborhood with the parents that when a kid arrives, you text the parent. It works about 90% of the time. Yes, sometimes I'm texting someone to send him home and they tell me he's not there. That's always fun texting around asking if your child is there, but it's happened to all of us. For the most part, we all know whose bike, scooter, and helmet are what color, and we can walk around and know where they are.
I don't believe most 10 year olds need a cell phone - seems like it's just opening up a whole world of trouble, between social media, inappropriate texting, etc., etc. Besides, when is your 10 year old someplace where you don't know exactly where they are?
What they want and what they get are often two different things. Cell phones are one of those things, to me.
We gave our 10yr old a cell phone so we can keep in touch with him. He goes out by himself. Not a crazy smart phone - basic one with call and text and a camera. No internet or ability to download apps. It's a prepaid type thing.
Prior to that we gave him an old Iphone. We locked it down pretty hard though. Iphone was nice because there are apps that allow you to control the phone remotely (turn on and off, etc.) and see where the phone is so we know where he is. Takes a good amount of time to learn all the options and how to lock it down.
We gave our son my old iPhone when I upgraded last fall - he was about 10 1/2. We didn't connect to a phone line so he could only access things via WiFi. It was a good test for him - showing that he could take care of it, not lose it, use it responsibly. I have the parent controls set up on it and he knows that we can look at the phone, history, etc. whenever we want. He knows that if he breaks the rules, he loses the privilege. At night, it goes on the charger downstairs - he's not allowed to take it with him to bed.
So far so good - he showed good judgement, so we connected it to a phone line for his birthday last month. Same rules still apply, with some additional ones about data usage (we share a data plan for now).
I don't think the decision about whether to give a child a phone or not can be based solely on age - much of it depends on the maturity level of the kid.
Yes, he remembers to charge it. Do not regret it. It makes it easy to find out where he is, let him know when to come home, tell him practice was cancelled, etc.
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