To be shocked that 97% of 12 years olds have smart phones?

I have 2;in secondary school and I'm shocked you know kids that age who have a Nokia. I don't know a single child without a smartphone.

Actually in our school homework is set through an app on their phones and their timetables and everything are on their phones.

I’m not surprised once they are in high school it’s handy for them to have a phone. They travel independently. Homework is given out/ submitted on glow, which is the school version of microsoft teams/ sharepoint. It’d actually be really difficult without access online as there updates during the day. Music teacher is off ill don’t attend your lesson type stuff. The school bus has been delayed please report to reception etc. They tell each other but it works as majority have a phone.

There are 28 kids in my Y5, and 30 in Y6.
I know that only 1 child in Y6 doesn't have a phone, and I think it's about 5 in Y5 (and I bet that will change after Xmas).

I keep their phones during the day. They are all smart phones, not a Nokia among them (and I'd say at least 10 of these phones are better/newer than mine, so unlikely to be hand me downs!). We are in a seriously deprived area, and it blows my mind.

I absolutely hate it, and spend hours every week dealing with SM issues that get brought into school.

Ok not surprised.
Only on mn is there so much phone-phobia. In RL most secondary children have one. Posters link to studies about how addictive they are. No doubt. I myself love mine! But most teens, in fact 12 year olds starting year 7 have one.

Smart phones are fine if you actually set up the restrictions. No child has to have Facebook or Instagram on their phones. You can set it to only pre approved numbers etc you can set timers for it to turn off or go “dumb” you can track it.

Smart phones are only bad when parents cnba to sort them out.

I have a 12 and 13 year old. It's unusual for any kid not to have a smart phone where we are.

Oh get real.

My kids school homework is a smartphone app. Their teachers post last minute timetable or room changes on there. They have e bus passes they have to scan, their school meal payment app is on there. They use it to take photos, use bus timetables, book cinema tickets, book into their youth clubs, they use it for homework, they are sometimes encouraged to use learning apps in classroom on their phones.

Does that make me a bad parent?

I thought as a society we were waking up to the dangers of giving children smartphones (I follow the Screen Free childhood campaign and have signed their pact) but reading this thread makes me think we clearly are not!

Smartphones are not appropriate for children. It is shocking that schools are forcing children to have smartphones in order to access homework, and bus companies only allowing e-tickets. You can put whatever software you want in your child’s phone to try to minimise risks but there will still be significant risks and they will work around it.

My kids both got one in the last term of primary school in preparation for going to secondary. They get two buses which takes over an hour and my eldest got lost walking from the bus stop to school on her first day. Luckily she was able to phone us and we could see where she was and direct her to school using Google maps. I’ve got four kids and we are always rushing around dropping one kid up and picking another up - the smart phones capabilities make my life so much easier. They also have Rooster cards which are controlled via an app on all our phones so I can monitor their spending. They WhatsApp throughout the day - done well in a test - send me a pic of their test paper - done badly - send me a message saying how sad they are. Of course I didn’t have all this when I was a kid but I personally, feel closer and more involved with my kids because we are all messaging each other throughout the day. My younger daughter has one friend with a brick phone. He often gets missed out of social engagements because none of them know how to ‘text’ and none of them will make a phone call so if they want him to join in with things I have to WhatsApp his mum.

I do monitor my kids usage pretty closely but they aren’t actually on their phones that much in the evenings. I think the novelty has worn off.

the reason we bought a smartphone was because of getting the bus by herself in year 7, the bus app, google maps and samsung tracking tags. I've not allowed Whatsapp and shut it down except for approved family apps etc. I did think long and hard but in the end if she gets lost, or on the wrong bus, or the bus is late she can see at a glance how to get home or when the next bus is coming without needing to phone home. I can also track her location. If there were a way of doing these things without a smart phone I would welcome it and use it.

I don’t agree at all that’s it’s bad parenting to give a 12y old a smart phone. It’s bad parenting not to monitor them and teach them how to use them properly. We had huge issues with Y7 WhatsApp groups with both my now Y11 and my current Y8. But all the parents were monitoring the chats and if anyone saw anything out of order, we’d alert other parents on the parents WhatsApp chat. We’d collectively come down on them like a tonne of bricks if we saw any hint of bullying/inappropriate behaviour.

My Y11 is now perfectly capable of using his phone sensibly, none of them are sending stupid comments on the kids group chat. They mainly use it to ask about homework, if anyone picked up their water bottle, what time do they need to meet for the sports fixture. They tend to regulate themselves now and it wouldn’t be cool to be behaving like a dick on the group WhatsApp.

Kids having phones for a huge variety of reasons is an absolute fact of life today. The real issue is kids having unrestricted access to smart phones, which is a sad reality for many.

Also shocked you're shocked, I don't even know they still made Nokias.
At our school they take photos of homework, reckon material etc.

My kids got smartphones the year they started year 7. I don’t remember any of their friends ar that tine not having phones. A lot of their friends had them in junior school so if I’d had to guess I would hsve said about the same.

I live on the Uk with secondary aged DC and I don’t know a 12 yo without a smart phone.

We appear to be talking about 2 different things.

I'm not talking about the phone they bring to school, I'm talking about the fact a large number of them very probably have smart phones at home.

Parents will sign up to any old nonsense to get their kids into certain schools.

So what you're seeing in school, is very probably not representative of what the kids have at home.

And given 97% of 12 year olds have smart phones, that would make sense.

I find it more disturbing that parents are tagging and tracking their 12 year old tbh.

I’ve just checked the behaviour policy and it would be three after school detentions if a smartphone was discovered so I doubt many kids risk that!

I think you are being naive.

I think this is a great example of, just because most people are doing it doesn't make it right.
I feel a responsibility to protect my children from the online world for as long as I can.

I’m surprised it’s as high as 3% tbh, I don’t know a high school age child who doesn’t have one.

But smart phones don’t have to mean free access to the internet. Often they mean calls, texts, GPS, ability to do homework, scan to pay for lunches or public transport and snacks etc, use of a map if walking different directions, google translate to help converse with other classmates who don’t have English as their first language, some games to play whilst waiting for the lift home, voice notes to record what needs to be remembered for the following day, school app to get information and upload responses etc. Normally the actual internet aspect is locked down or linked to certain times of the day and for a set duration.