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

And there was a pay phone in every corner so completely different situation.

TBF though as I work in this area, privacy is as important to me as what she or my son are accessing via phones. My son is nearly an adult and he doesn't away listen to me but tbf he doesn't have finger print access to his phone.

What a funny rule.

My daughter was the last of her friends to get a smart phone in p6. Most had phones from around 9. I live in a city and it's a decent walk to the school so I got my daughter a phone when she started walking herself as there are no pay phones. It's been brilliant for us and has helped her manage her anxiety and keep in touch with extended family (we are immigrants).

I'll likely get my son a phone next year when he's 9 as I'm hoping he will walk himself to school then. Some of his friends already have them but mostly it's still watches for his age and then the phones show up next year.

Every single kid I've seen at my house or walking around has a smart phone so I'd think it's almost 100% for our school - the few kids who don't I'd guess it's for financial reasons.

This is why I asked for a pin and my DD is probably the only one in her year with a canteen card as we didn't consent to the finger print.

Once physical identifiers are stolen they are out there and that is it you can't replace them, you can't replace your finger print.

Yet according to the house of commons Library, 17% of children live in poverty. (22/23)

I'm not surprised. Mine had a Nokia until secondary school. I don't think I know of any of their secondary aged friends who don't have smart phones. It's not actually that smary as I have blocked access to social media apps like snap chat and tick tok and they have limited use.

Agreed, we don’t want him deprived of social time or gaming (though it’s easier to limit in this format) and he certainly gets time online. We just don’t see the benefit of smart phones and apps like WhatsApp or Snapchat etc. specifically for that age. He simply doesn’t need one.

But he online chatting with friends and playing online, does he also use the WWW hardly deprivation. I think it is a good idea but there has been a big campaign and push for this, it wasn't like that 6 years ago when my eldest was that age. Common sense prevailed though so all was well.

It's normal for Secondary School age children to have phones. That's the age mine first got there's. For the first time they were going to be travelling several miles away to High School.

The school has a no phone policy. They put their phones in their bags while at school. That's pretty straightforward. They have the phones if they need to contact me after school.

That is a very sensible approach.

Doesn’t surprise me at all.
DD will have a phone for secondary school and I’m sure it’ll be a smartphone. The vast vast majority of kids I know, personally and professionally, have smartphones.

So you wouldn't mind if you or your child's finger print along with other identifying data was breached?

Well we are very unusual by the sounds of it. DS 12 has an old style phone and forgets to take it with him most days, he doesn’t care in the slightest. He cycles to school, it takes 10
minutes, we only pressure him to take it on bad weather days as we will pick him up if it’s pouring. We don’t want a smart phone for as long as we can leave it, WhatsApp groups for kids sound awful to us. We are open to letting him have one when it starts to really matter. Hopefully not for some time yet. Thankfully he isn’t bothered at all. He plays online games with his friends, arranges to meet them on Google chat on his Chromebook, does homework and uses school apps on the Chromebook, and doesn’t miss a phone at all. His best friend also has a brick phone and doesn’t want a smart phone either. His parents feel the same as us and want to leave it as long as possible. No religious school, just a massive ordinary comprehensive. Other kids do all seem to have them, and no we don’t care.

It is shocking. Some schools use apps which make it virtually essential for the pupils to have smartphones. I wish they wouldn't do that, though there are workarounds (parents' phones, etc.). There are so many dangers to giving children smartphones and very few advantages. I have no doubt that in years to come, we will look back at this era in horror, just as we now look at questionable decisions of the past.

My 13year old has a smartphone. They travel to school by bus. The bus company ONLY issue online tickets on an app which requires a smartphone to display/operate.

The phones are not allowed to be in use at school.

Outside of school I have limited what can and cannot be accessed and also set a limit on screen time.

The idea that smartphones somehow keep kids safe while travelling to school is ridiculous. I see them every morning, shuffling along, hunched over a phone like a moron. Or using their phone while cycling. Give your kids some real independence ffs. Stop tracking them. Trust them. It's only a walk/cycle/bus ride not an Arctic expedition.

Not to mention the risks from all the other crap that phones give them access to.

Not biometric data unless you have actively chose that.

My DCs have had our old smartphones since starting y7. They have to hand it in at school or, for the older ones, have it turned off.
Once home, they don’t use - left in the kitchen drawer and the screen downtime is automatically activated

I’m not suprised.
My son is 11 yr7 and he has an app on his phone for homework.
He has one friend who doesn’t have a phone and is not allowed to have one until yr9.
His parents have to have the app on a phone or pc.
My son lives within walking distance from home so he doesn’t get a bus but many of his friends do so they have them so they can contact their parents if anything is wrong or happens.
The rest of his friends have iPhones or Samsungs.
His school also have fingerprints for lunch as well

The amount of data stored about us, I feel the horse as long since bolted. All our data is stored at GP surgeries, hospitals, schools, work, libraries, gyms etc