Phone/tablet restrictions for 12yo

[Magnificentbeast]

My 12yo dc says none of her friends have restrictions on their phones/tablets. Well, except for her best friend whose mum I know well. Can this be true??

She's Y7 so her friends are 11 & 12yo.

We use family link on her phone so set times for it to go on and off. We give permission to download apps & there's a limit on how much time she gets on her phone.

She got a Kindle tablet when she was 10 and we messed up with the restrictions so there wasn't any but we kept an eye out. That tablet has now died and she has sussed that any new tablet will have family link which is where the protest came from.

She's sensible and trustworthy but the whole secondary school world is a concern.

Just interested to know that her assumption about her friends (kids that age) not having restrictions is accurate.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

My 12yo dc says none of her friends have restrictions on their phones/tablets. Well, except for her best friend whose mum I know well. Can this be true? of course not!

Our DD is a year older but has time limits, goes off at a reasonable tike st night and it's a child account so we have to approve any app requests.

[DaisyMaureen]

I have timers on my 13 year old son's phone and also take it overnight. I did the same with my Dd until she had finished her GCSE's and now she can keep it in her room at night.

[Magnificentbeast]

Yeah, it seems sensible to me. Ours isn't allowed her electronics upstairs.

I felt bad when she said it meant we didn't trust her because we do.

[BreakfastOfWaffles]

I have found with mi ne that when they say "everyone" is allowed X thing, it usually turns out to be two children!

[WotsitWiggle]

My DD is the same - we use Family Link too, she's year 8.

We took the time limit off during lockdown 1.0 because she needed the chromebook for school work but bedtime has remained.

We agreed to remove bedtime over the school hols ie unlimited, on her insistence that she would go to sleep at a sensible time. There were instances of her still on it after 11pm, so when school went back, bedtime went back on.

[stout]

My son is 12. Ive noticed in recent months he's more and more on his phone and switch.

Phone has family link and time limits. The switch he gets for say a couple of hours. All behaviour based e.g on top of homework etc.

Put some of it down to covid etc but I do get the impression its quite common these days. I do also remember spending too much time on computers as a kid and I dont think it's really had an adverse effevt as I lost interest entirely at about 17/18. Do worry though when you see these fortnite gamers on YouTube etc.

[monoaaad]

12 year old here. We also use family link.

[pickmeups]

I'd be careful. A couple of weeks ago I accidentally clicked on someone's Instagram profile on an account I follow (they'd replied to a post) it was a 12-year-old girl (had her age and school year in her bio) with pictures of herself sticking her tongue out, ass to the side and in crop tops. Had other kids tagged in her photos with pictures all the same type, ages 12-13!

Similarly, my niece got a phone for her 9th birthday last October and a laptop last Christmas. She used to be into all sorts of girly toys, dollhouse play, ROBLOX and now she's into Tik Tok drama, crop tops, make-up, pulling her skirt up for school, posing etc. All in one year, because she had unrestricted access to the internet.