What type of mobile phone does your 11/12 year old have?

[Madmog]

My daughter has just started comp and for now she has my husband's old phone on PAYG, but I can see it regularly running out as she's getting 5/6 texts a day and I suspect it will go up as she gets into, so looking at a contract.

I just wondered what phones other 11/12 year olds have - are they basic, qwerty, touchscreen? I know Blackberrys are popular but they are one of the most common phones to have faults! I've noticed three of her friends have touchscreen and one has a basic Samsung phone. Just wondering which is the best option for a one/two year contract.

[member]

She has an old PAYG Samsung Tocco Lite which has a limited/basic touch screen.

Her friends seem to favour Samsung Galaxy - she's not bothered atm but am toying with the idea of something approx £10 per month on contract though the initial flurry of going through credit rapidly seems to have died down.

[madbengal]

DD got a blackberry for her 11th birthday having previously proven with her last phone (an old 1 of mine) that should would look after it

I have the internet etc disabled on it and its got a PAYG sim in it

[Pourquoimoi]

DS1 has also just started in year 7, he used to have a payg but has just moved to a samsung galaxy y on Tesco mobile for £10 a month on a capped contract. He gets 250mins, 5,000 texts and 500mb if Internet.

[Theas18]

Galaxy y on giffgaff £5/ month- unlimited texts and free gg/gg calls. No Internet access allowed on phone - thy have access at school and in a laptop down stairs. They really don't need to be facebookng in bed or accessing inappropriate websites ...

The galaxy y is really good bit of kit and cheap..

[Theas18]

Oops, she's 13 now!

[AnyFucker]

htc android

[youonlysingwhenyourewinning]

My 12 yo has a Blackberry on contract (dh pays)

They are notorious for breaking and she is on her second handset since Christmas due to a fault (free replacement).

That said, it's had more use in 9 months than mine has had in 2 years - she's never off the damn thing!

[RagingDull]

look at Virgin mobile - blackberrys on there for a tenner a month, 250 texts and 250 mins for that. All DDs friends have blackberrys - she is now 15 but had a phone since she was 11.

[RagingDull]

oh - and the think with blackberry is they can BBM each other for free! godsend!
DD has only ever had 2 blackberry phones in 4 years and thats due to her dropping the first one down the loo.....

insurance with virgin is a fiver extra.....but sooooo worth it!

hth!

[Madmog]

Thanks for your replies. I'm not too up to date this things, but is BBM similar to texting?

[agnesf]

Just about to get a phone for DS who is 10. he is very keen on Tesco Mojo phone which looks like a Blackberry but without much functionality. He only needs texts and to be able to get texts from me so will be going for a PAYG deal.

Does anyone have one of these - it looks pretty cheap and tacky. It only costs £20 but am wondering whether it will fall to bits. I would rather get him a Nokia 100 which only costs £10 and is very basic.

[Beanbagz]

Marking my place as DD is coming up to 11 and already mentioning getting a phone!

[Dancergirl]

Dd just got her first phone for starting secondary. In my experience, PAYG doesn't work out v good value so we shopped around and found a good deal with Tesco - £7.50 per month with loads of texts and talk time and free phone, a Samsung chat. She's v pleased with it. I just couldn't justify a blackberry for a child.

[janinlondon]

DD had a bog standard PAYG brick for the first year. Having proved to us that she can (a) look after it, and (b) control her spending, she now has an allowance of £40 a month and has chosen to use £10 of that on a contract Blackberry. She has just gone into yr 8.

[korky123]

My 12 year old daughter has got a Blackberry with BBM, 50 mins and 250 texts for £10.50/month she got it last year for her birthday after I fell for ?everybody has got one? when she started secondary school. It was the worst thing I ever did!! For those who don?t know about BBM it is like Facebook where you can instant message people individually or send a broadcast to everybody in your contacts. You need people?s pin no. to add them to your contacts. My daughter only has people who she knows in her contacts but some people have hundreds of contacts who they don?t even know because everybody broadcasts their pin no. I was recently shocked to find some broadcasts doing the rounds on my daughters phone that had explicit sexual references, lots of swearing and most recently a photograph of a 12 year old girl naked from the neck to her waist. I have told my daughter if she receives any similar broadcasts to delete the contact who passed it on or the phone goes. P.S. my daughter has not got a Facebook account as she isn?t old enough.

[RagingDull]

i dont think you can blame that on the phone though korky....

BBM is a good thing imo as it is free. Means all those with blackberries can message each other without cost.

DD is really sensible with hers, she has had since she started secondary and is now in year 11.

[korky123]

I'm not blaming the phone, just warning parents of the sort of things that gets broadcast. My daughter is sensible with hers and shows me what goes on. I don't want to take it off her as I would be punishing her for what other people do.

[korky123]

I'm not blaming the phone, just warning parents of the sort of things that gets broadcast. My daughter is sensible with hers and shows me what goes on. I don't want to take it off her as I would be punishing her for what other people do.

[hopenglory]

Nokia 100. PAYG through O2. Unlimited texts for £7.50 per month

[dlady]

Dd1 got a blackberry for her 13th birthday and dd2 got one for her recent 11th birthday. Both are on contracts and they are pretty sensible with them. They both also had to contribute some of their birthday money towards the phones.

[lljkk]

small lightweight clamshell I bought 2nd off of Ebay & put on Giffgaff later.

[nickschick]

ds3hss a samsung galaxy ace on contract with 3he grts 100 talk minutes unlimited text and internetfor £13 a month.

[Sparklingbrook]

DS1 has a Blackberry 10.50 a month at T Mobile. BBM great because a lot of his mates have a Blackberry too.

[madbengal]

Well DD did have a Blackberry, I thought getting the internat and bluetooth disable would protect her (as I always thought shewas a bit niave) but after a wkend stay away I checked it and found 3 videos that shocked the crap outta me so she has had the riot act read to her, them deleted and her phone confisacated til we can get her a basic mobile with radio (if she is lucky)

I hope you all check your kids phones

[TantrumsAndBalloons]

Both have had blackberry since year 7, £12.50 contract for virgin includes 100 minutes, 500 texts and unlimited BBM.