Cell Phones for kids

[mycoolgirl]

I keep hearing this question, so I thought I would ask you. What is a good age to give your kids a cell phone?

 

[CCTX50]

Well, I would say when you the parent feel that they are in need of a cell phone. Not when the child thinks they need one. Justify it and set limits and rules.

On another note... what does this have to do with scuba diving? Let's try to keep post related to the scuba industry. Just my two cents worth.

 

[DeputyDan]

When you child is old enough to have the need to contact you to let you know about a situation.

IE - swim practice was cancelled - come get me.

IE - I am not comfortable at friend X's home - come get me.

You get the picture.

 

[mselenaous]

My sister who has 4 kids ages 8-16 and I had this conversation a few months ago. She said "I would have never thought that I would see the day when I would give my 8 yo child a cellphone so I could track his whereabouts." That week she had given all 4 kids (not just the 2 high school kids) cellphones where she could log in and see their GPS locaters and see if each kid was where she/he was supposed to be at that given time.

Not so coincidently, she did this the same week a little girl disappeared in her town. The child who usuallly walked home about a mile from school with neighbors and siblings had a minor childhood tiff and ran off/ahead of the group. The child never made it home and after several days of amber alerts her body was found abused in a wooded area less than 1 mile from where she disappeared.

We live in a very crazy unpredicatable world and our kids are exposed to things we never would have imagined.

However, we also kvetched over the fact that kids today thanks to texting technology no longer know how to spell, write and punctuate a complete sentence, nor carry on a conversation face-to-face, nor make a decision or a move without consulting/broadcasting their friends via texts/facebook 2800 times/month (yes that is a national average statistic I read a few months ago in a news article).

It's your kid, you're the parent, you know your kid, you be the parent and the judge of what your kid needs.

There are plenty of pros and cons. Don't feel like you have to follow the herd mentality if the reasons given don't jive with your own personal beliefs.

 

[Hockeynut]

Well, I would say when you the parent feel that they are in need of a cell phone. Not when the child thinks they need one. Justify it and set limits and rules.

On another note... what does this have to do with scuba diving? Let's try to keep post related to the scuba industry. Just my two cents worth.

Do the words "Non Diving Related" escape you??


And to answer the question, when they can pay for it themselves.

 

[mrjimboalaska]

when they can pay for it themselves.

Bingo! My 11 yr old has been trying to get one out of us for 3 years now. No way......

 

[Jim Lapenta]

When they get a job. Had they been around in the 60's I would have had one when I was 8. I worked every day after school in a family business and never got an "allowance". Little rug rats have it too soft these days.

Open up the sweat shops and put em to work after school. many 6 yr olds are big enough to push a lawn mower on level ground! Would also slow illegals coming into the country. Put your kids to work for $1 an hour instead of Pedro for 5. Save money and teach a valuable lesson. In some neighborhoods there are 8 yr olds running around with wads big enough to choke a horse. Course you know what they are doing.

A kid old enough to have a cell phone is old enough to work for it. Otherwise tell em to yell real loud or get off their lazy butts and go see their friends, outside, while getting some exercise!

Crotchety old man rant over now! 50 is great!

 

[Diver0001]

Both of my kids (9 and 11) have cell phones that they paid for themselves from their allowance money.

You can buy pre-paid phones where I live for about the same amount of money that it costs to go to a movie. Prepaid phones have no subscription costs and they're mostly useful for being reachable.

I don't care what anyone says about this. My kids don't use them much to call us (or they call and we call them right back) but I *like* being able to reach them whenever and wherever they might be. My youngest doesn't really need a phone and he just got one because his sister got one.... (contrary to my advice, but it won't be the last time... )

But my oldest child is now to the age where she's becoming somewhat independent. She's starting to kick on heading off with a friend and doing their own thing when we go "shopping" downtown, which means we don't always know where she is anymore....and even though the conversations are like, "where are you? Ok, go there and there and we'll meet you in 15 minutes." and I *know* I survived this phase of my life without a cellphone, I just think it's part of life now and it's silly to hold off giving your kid this "tool" once they reach that age. Especially since it's *really* cheap insurance and peace of mind.

Of course, in some cities or areas the age might be higher or lower than 11 but you get the picture. I should also say that cultural differences may have an effect. In Holland everyone who has a TV has a cell phone unless it's a matter of principle.

One thing I firmly believe, due to experience with some of my kids's friends whose parents are divorced, is that if you are divorced and your kid isn't aways reachable at Mom's or Dad's house that they should at least have a pre-paid phone so their friends can reach them. Every single one of the kids of divorced parents I know have their own phone number and that's very handy.

R..

 

[Diver0001]

When they get a job. Had they been around in the 60's I would have had one when I was 8. I worked every day after school in a family business and never got an "allowance". Little rug rats have it too soft these days.

Open up the sweat shops and put em to work after school. many 6 yr olds are big enough to push a lawn mower on level ground! Would also slow illegals coming into the country. Put your kids to work for $1 an hour instead of Pedro for 5. Save money and teach a valuable lesson. In some neighborhoods there are 8 yr olds running around with wads big enough to choke a horse. Course you know what they are doing.

A kid old enough to have a cell phone is old enough to work for it. Otherwise tell em to yell real loud or get off their lazy butts and go see their friends, outside, while getting some exercise!

Crotchety old man rant over now! 50 is great!

Wow Jim. I don't want to be rude but I'd bet you don't have any kids.....

Times change, my dear friend. When I was 8 (in my case in 1974) 8-track tapes were the future and the cell phone hadn't even been invented yet. But I had a short wave radio that my father attached to a 1500ft long antenna that he built by wrapping loops of copper wire around the roof of our house.

It was like a life line to me. It was the most important thing my father ever did for me. On the "normal" radio I could only get two stations. Radio Canada which was all about "culture" (which meant classical music) and the local radio station that needed a bomb threat before they would consider playing anything that didn't sound like a tortured cowboy whose prize cow died of loneliness.

But shortwave, baby!!!! In 1974, that was the dope. I totally kicked from listening to the evening news on the American propaganda station and then tuning in to the Russian propaganda sender an hour later to hear the same news stories from a totally different perspective.

Kids these days can't even understand that. If they want the news from a different perspective they just point their browser at ??????? ?? and click on the English flag. Our kids live in a different world than we did and it is *our* job to keep pace, not *their* job to pretend that everything was better 50 years ago! And cell phones are a part of their world.

My POV, I know. But that's how I see the world our kids live in.

R..

 

[Sinbad the Diver]

when they are old enough to pay for one.