What age would you get your child a smart phone?

My son has a phone. He is 10. It's called the family phone and I made it sound like it's everyone's but really it's his. He uses it to text friends and to take out to play. That's it. He's not allowed to sit and scroll on it. He's not allowed social media. It has to sit on the side in the house and I check it.

But surely everyone who's over about 20 has managed to catch a bus/go into a shop without the benefit of a phone and their parents being in constant contact?

Why do we think our children aren't capable of this? It's a bit worrying.

I suspect that many people don't have a spacetalk watch and don't know what it is (I hadn't heard of it before this post) and just simply feel more comfortable with their child having a phone when they're out by themselves

Why does one need a smart phone to take the bus these days?

also, to go to the corner shop? My nearly-10 year old has a SpaceTalk watch. That’s all they need at this age. The rest is nonsense (and if schools are setting homework via app and it genuinely cannot be accessed without a smart phone - which I doubt - then they are part of the problem and that is something else that needs to change).

11th Birthday ready for starting secondary school as DS needs to get the bus. He is summer born so meant he had it fairly late compared to the rest of his year group.
His secondary school is a phone free school which I think is brilliant, they can't be on it at all on school property.

We then limit his time on certain apps and have controls. I think the most important thing is to talk to your kids about the dangers that come with having a smartphone. Especially strangers messaging etc, I periodically check who DS messages and he has to be able to tell me who everyone is.

It's really tricky as I want him to have it for practical purposes but at his age you have to be proactive in managing their time and the content on it otherwise it becomes all consuming. Saying that if a friend comes to call he still prefers to go out and play and leave his phone behind. Long may this last!

Mine was 10 in year 5 but this was when smart phones weren't that smart - but she has since said she thought it was too young - she still had access to all the apps and she felt looking back , it was quite risky , being exposed to all there is available to see, even though we had parental controls . I didn't give one to my other DD till she was year 7 .

We've gone with part way through year 6 for both dd's. Not all of dd's friends went to the same high school so by having the phone in year 6 allowed for them to keep in contact.

It also allowed us to smooth out any mini dramas before high school. No big issues but class WhatsApp groups etc, where there were disagreements. Just general learning how to use the phone and keep in contact with people appropriately. Year 6 was a good time to be able to do this without the added stress of year 7 and lots of new people/friends.

Dd2 was one of the last to get her phone in a class of 32.

My daughter had hers in year 6 when she started walking to school on her own.

She would also walk to youth club/ the local community centre for activities during the school holidays, to friends houses.

She also takes the bus by herself to her hobby.

Very glad she has it as one day there were road closures which caused the buses to not be running. She was able to find her way home walking by video calling her dad who guided her and stayed on the call with her as she walked back.

Other DC is disabled and I'm his carer so phone gives her freedom she may not have if I had to take her everywhere as with us it's not so simple to just pop out.

Mine got theirs at 11, just as they were about to start secondary school. No need for one any earlier.

4 of my Dc got a phone for there 11th birthday
ds4 was 11 in December and got his dads old phone
most of the children in my sons class yr 6 have phones and the school talk to them about phone safety as well as us teaching and supervising at home
Dd is 9 and is not happy that she has to wait a lot of her friends have phones yr 4 but I don’t think she needs one so she will not get one until she is 11
it’s something we have done for all of our Dc eldest being 26

My DD is getting one for her 16th birthday. Despite everyone telling me she’d miss out on social life that never happened. Her friends text her on her non smart mobile phone. The only issue we had was school sometimes set homework on phones but she could do most of it on a lap top. And she doesn’t get her phone out in front of friends as she’d be too embarrassed she just tells them she doesn’t bring it to school.

I got moaned at for a year or two but after seeing her friend go through hell / change of school and self harm through whassap bullying and another needed counselling after being sent some sick stuff I won’t go into here, she thanked me earlier this year for holding out.

You need to set up Apple’s parental controls which means setting up family sharing and having your DC as a child under you as their parent in that. Then you can set limits (including disallowing entirely) under Screen Time and DC can only add it back if they know your Screen Time passcode (so keep that secret).

https://support.apple.com/en-us/105121

How do you block safari? On the handset itself? Could a child unblock it themselves?
Secondary school seems more reasonable but i can understand the 'walking home from school' idea e'at a younger age.

But really you have to do what you think is acceptable for your child and circumstances.

Wishing you well :)

Just getting her now. She's 10

Although that's because I let her go to the corner shop now. So it's the right time. She's starting to get more independence.

Don't know if she didn't do anything by herself

We gave our kids phones in yr5 so that they could have more freedom to head off places without us. Without that aspect we’d probably have waited until secondary as they had all the smart stuff on their computers anyway, it was the portable aspect that was key. Got hit by Covid soon after so they didn’t go anywhere much until secondary anyway! Though was still somewhat useful when we went out on walks, to the park, etc.

A few of their friends, including their cousins, had them from age 8ish to contact non-resident parents, which seemed to work for them.

12/13

My older 3 were in year 7 (aged 11). Since then I've had a rethink and my younger 2 will just be getting a very basic phone in year 7 that does texts and calls only.

Mine were 14 when they first got phones. That was when they started going properly Out out.

Ds was 7 when he got his first smart phone.

Many of the tech bosses don't, because they know more than anyone how addictive/ damaging they are. I think that says a lot.

www.chron.com/business/article/Why-didn-t-Steve-Jobs-let-his-kids-use-iPads-16468409.php#

At late as possible! My daughter is 11 so starting secondary in Sept and she's not got one and won't be anytime soon.

My 6 year old has one. No sim card and no SM no different to having an iPad/tablet