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

That’s probably the norm at this child’s school to accommodate the lack of smartphones.

I’m interested in how effective parents find the AirTags given the children don’t have Bluetooth for them to operate from, so they need to rely upon smartphones nearby.

So it’s ours but they don’t have a station to check it only the app.

My point exactly. My eldest is 18, he had a smartphone from year 7, and he has left college, 2nd top in his class. He's at university now and has a part-time job with the council. It's done him no harm at all. Yes, at that age, he had restrictions as has my youngest now, but it's down to the parent to limit screen time on any device, and it's down to the maturity of your child. Some children are still very immature at any age. Technology is huge now. I mean, even AI has taken over jobs and is set to take over many more. We have to live with technology, not against it. Children need to be aware of online danger just as much as the dangers in the real world. They can't do that if everything is being overly controlled. That will make them even more inquisitive as they're being molly coddled.

Not if you don't let them.

So you don't mind biometric data of your child's being out their in the ether- what about if there is a data breach?

Something I would never let the school have.

Mine had a smart phone at that age purely for tracking purposes and to play games. He didn't have any social medias as I didn't allow it.

Well my child has a mini board and chalk - I don't care what his sixth form friends say!

I bet that many of the children from this school of dumb phones have a tablet at home. Tablets have pretty much the same functionality as a smart phone so I think that if the question was tablet or smart phone then the answer is like be 99%+

I wouldn't be surprised if 97% of year 7s at my son's school have smartphones as the school has everything from lunch money to timetables to homework on an app.
They're not supposed to have phones on during the day but also often seem to be asked to use them in class.

Yes, I mean parents are hyper aware of the Smartphone dangers because it has been the hot topic for a year or so, it isn't due to their superior parenting. I have a late teen and he had a smartphone at 12 with restrictions but he still had one, he's happy, grade A, very sociable student. I'm afraid all societies ills can't be blamed on the smart phone. I work in the area of Privacy and info sec and there are moral question marks over this surveillance technology but no one bats an eyelid at airtags it seems. Surveillance of young people and by that I mean the huge amounts of data made about a child in a school and the third parties they share it with does appear to be as problematic. In fact, I'm not sure it's great for the mental health of your average tween and teen to be monitored, rated (performance data) and have no privacy.

What do you mean by VERY VERY religious?

Wow, I think bad parenting is going to the extreme! So you're basically saying that 97% of the population who have a 12 year old with a smartphone is a bad parent! Just because they have a smartphone and not a brick doesn't mean they spend their life on it. My son is barely on his, but does use an ipad which has all the same features of a smartphone, ie; websites, apps etc because he has to use it for school. So what's the difference!?!🤔

My son has gone into year 7 and all his peers have smart phones. As previous posters have said they are walking to and from school independently, going to after school clubs etc so it's security and helps with tracking. Although the school are strict about usage during the school day and notifications being turned off etc they do use them as part of learning. Teachers will ask students to take photos of whiteboards for example, or to store their timetables on. In some lessons kids have asked to use their phones to research facts. Their inductions were very heavily weighted towards the dangers of social media and recommendations for limiting WhatsApp chats. There's been a lot of education around how bullying can thrive on phone chats. So the school are taking an active role in teaching kids how to use phones sensibly and safely which I think is pretty valuable.

Where do you live where no child even asks for a phone - Silicon Valley!

Hardly surprising when so much of their school work is internet based, i.e. homework apps, timetables, VLEs, needing the internet for homework, needing the internet for research during lessons, needing the internet to access online text books and other online resources, pupils encouraged to take snapshots of the white board or to video science experiments in lessons, emails between teachers and pupils, etc. Schools are driving the need for pupils to have smartphones!

I don’t see the harm in tracking either. I was late to collect DD from her sports club this evening because of traffic and diversions. I obviously couldn’t answer the phone when driving, but DD was able to track me and see I was about 10mins away.

I guess it depends what you consider a child. My two were both very grown up and sensible when they got their phones. We had a lot of very frank and open conversations around all sorts of elements of internet safety, grooming, bullying, fraud etc. My daughter left the class WhatsApp chat because she thought it was a toxic environment and both of them have flagged up things that they have come across that they are uncomfortable with.

Genuine question - when do you expose your kids to this? You can’t keep them offline forever. It’s like handing them the keys to a car at 17 and expecting them to be able to drive. I’d rather that my kids have learned to navigate the digital world whilst they are young enough to accept my supervision.

for safety reasons. I live in a not so nice area & my son during the first half of year 7 was a target for some boys from school and on more than one occasion he was too scared to completely get his phone out to ring me. So he would pull it out & send me just a random letter & I knew he needed me to come to him. So his tracker allowed me to do just that. Not to mention if he is out and somehow gets lost which I did a lot at 14, I am able to find him and tell him how to either get home or collect him. I also if he is away on a residential like to know he’s got there safely ect as they can not always send us a text right away.

if you’re not tracking your kids in this day and age then I think you’re far too laid back. I come from a very rough area and wouldn’t dream of allowing any of my children to step out of the house alone without it.

I don’t find the AirTag reliable. It needs to be near an iPhone with Bluetooth on. Mostly my ds is untrackable between school and home. Fine now at 11 in primary school but next year at 12 he’ll get my old iPhone with parental controls and tracking switched on and App Store switched off. I want him to have the maps app in case he ever gets on the wrong bus.