Daughter has bought her 7 year old a phone

OP have you asked your daughter about it, what the daughter will have access to etc? It may be a smartphone but that doesn't mean that she will have access to SM, snapchat etc. DS had my old smartphone when he was 9, but only it could only be used at home on the home internet or if out with me (e.g. long car journey) and only for games and child friendly apps - CBBC, etc. He didn't have unfettered access to anything and everything.

speak for yourself.

You know it's possible to first, not let a child on their phone without supervision, and more importantly, to see what your child actually does on their phone?

I guess people who are as ignorant as you are probably safer without a phone indeed.

The hysteria on here is wild!!! Surely noone believes OPs dd is going to allow a 7 year old to set up social media accounts or suddenly have complete unsupervised and unrestricted access to the dark Web for 16 hours a day? A cheap smartphone is usually much cheaper than a tablet, and has access to plenty of age appropriate things children in the age of modern technology love: cameras, simple games, music etc. None of these things were issues when we were children, but just because they come in the format of a smartphone it's suddenly evil? And if a 7 year old can send a few "hi, what are you doing?" messages to family and friends what is the harm? I didn't have a smartphone until I was 27....because that's when they were released, it's now more and more common for these things to be more accessible to younger and younger children. As long as its limited screen time (any responsible parent would do this) and totally monitored then honestly there is zero issue.

This

My DD is 8 and none of her friends have phones. How on earth adults can give something so harmful to a child is astonishing.

Because my nearly 10 year old already has a phone, she’ll be well over it (and already is 😆) by the time she starts secondary where the REAL danger lies.

Teach them to use a phone safely at a young age. It’s worked for me.

Same - and her Apple account is completely controlled by mine - she can’t even add a contact (or even amend one!) without my consent. Unknown numbers can’t phone her. She can’t call numbers that aren’t contacts.

She can’t download apps without me knowing. I have to consent first.

She can’t access the internet without my consent.

Upshot is, fun can be had absolutely safely.

And she knows WHY these safety measures are in place, which is really important for them to know.

It can be done if you’re sensible.

Unbelievable.

Those kids will all be getting "ADHD/ASD" diagnoses in a few years then. Crap parenting

Why parents can’t discourage phones is beyond me. Once they hit secondary school that’s it. You have very little say. When they are little you do.

The responses on here remind me of parents at my school. Very rare they have the phone year 3 and below. But it happens.

The biggest regret I have as a parent of a 16 & 14 year old is giving them phones in Y6. Not because of them accessing inappropriate content, they had heavy restrictions, we monitored their use and did all the things you’re ’supposed’ to do as a responsible parent. But because their attention span is now that of a goldfish. They can’t watch a whole film or read more than a chapter of a book because they can’t not touch their phones. And they are all like it - the constant stimulation, flicking from one app to the next, constant messages from friends, permanently being on line. We managed to get my eldest ‘back in the room’ for exams but it was not easy. I’ll be starting much earlier with my youngest and wish I’d given them a flip phone from day 1.

It is poor parenting. There is absolutely no reason a child needs a smartphone. There is plenty of research that shows the negative impact on giving them to a child. Even it is SIM card free or totally supervised, the only reason a child would even want a phone is because they see it as being something important, special, necessary. So must be picking it up from the adults around them who are clearly modelling unhealthy relationship with their phone.

Some schools are now doing smartphone free childhood contracts. Asking parents to commit to giving their child a smartphone free childhood until 13 or 14. The aim being that it will remove the peer pressure to have a smartphone. I hope more do it and removing the social pressure to have one is the biggest precursor to majority of kids wanting one.

Having worked in a primary school where many of our year 5s and 6s who are 'supervised' on them have had incidents, there is zero chance I will be giving my child one before 13 and I do have very low opinions of parents who give them to their children.

Are you saying the only reason to have a smartphone is to go on social media? You can't fathom that there's other functions and apps that people might want to use?

How am I being either naive or ignorant?

As I said above, she also plays a game on there.

Would you say the same about a camera, walkman or gameboy?

The moment you hand your child a smartphone, you end their childhood. Your daughter has done just that. Congratulations to her. She clearly doesn’t care about her child’s mental health. You are not being unreasonable at all. Best thing that could happen to the phone is a mallet….. I’d go Kirsty Allsop on it and smash it before real harm is done. And no, that’s not an exaggeration. I work in education and see what smart phones/social media does to kids

What is the point of a smartphone then? You can have the same interaction you’re describing on a non smartphone. Could it be your child does not use it just for messaging siblings?

Your naivety or ignorance is actually outstanding.

My mum would have a word with me if I gave my daughter a phone at that age.

My DDs classmates have phones, WhatsApp group fall outs have already happened with inappropriate things being shared in the group sadly…

With luck she will lose it, or a 'friend' will find out she has it and pinch it, and that should be the end of it until she is older.

It’s definitely not the choice I would make but it’s not crack cocaine - and it’s not your child to decide what happens with them. Leave this to the parents.

Excactly if it was 1985 and a 7 year old got a 'walkman' or a camera or a gameboy nobody would bat an eyelid.

It would be thats nice dear, look after it.
Instead its a crazy OMG phones are the work of the devil!

You may not be able to do anything about it, but I would still voice my opinion and tell her how disappointed I am that she has brought it for her something that she should not be having until she at least goes to secondary school, has she never heard of on line bullying and weirdos and I would tell her so.

This - any child with a phone connected to the internet has the ability to access porn and other material they shouldn’t.

"... that I know of."

And I sincerely hope you're right. But we know that unscrupulous people exploit children, knowing the children may be too ashamed to say anything.