What phone does your 11 or 12 year old have?

[Wainwriter]

Thinking about getting dc1 a phone for Christmas ready for secondary next year. I'm totally unsure what phone to get though. I've never had any Apple products, but I know they are popular and apparently have good parental control options. Is this true? Obviously we won't be buying the latest iPhone, but would an older model iPhone be a good idea? Or do we stick with android? If so, are there any apps that we can use for monitoring use etc?

Just wondering what everyone else does / did for their dc?

My DD got an iPhone 11 last Christmas, she was 11 and due to start senior school in the following September.

Iphone SE / a refurbished one from giffgaff

11 year old has an iPhone 8. It's my old phone with a pay as you go sim in it.

I've just bought my DD a Motorola g50. She only uses it for YouTube and WhatsApp so should be perfectly fine.

A Sony Xperia. Partly because it's the same operating system as my phone so he's used to it, but mostly because he's stubborn and refuses to have what everyone else has. All his friends have got iPhones...

I think it's a 5S. Dd1 (just 12) got my old phone and was pretty pleased with it!

Samsung. Been pleased. Labels aren't a thing for them so never been asked to spend £££ on a phone.

Key points are protective case and data. They rarely make calls. We have a no phones after 7.30pm and no phones upstairs rule. Which they mostly stick to.

Also, I never believe the 'all my friends line' unless I see it. Apparently all their friends had phones in year 5. Amazing how few of those friends had a phone when they got theirs start of y7.

iPhone XR my old one.

iPhone 5 on a Tesco contract that has a cap so he can't rack up a million pounds on youtube in the car.

He's had it 18 months and it seems to be standing up well.

If you want parental controls enabled stick with the same operating system as yours. IPhone and ipad parental control needs another apple device to control it (can't be controlled via a website) which caught us out.

Dont get an iPhone if you (and DH?) have android phones. Keep the system the same.

DS1 had my old Samsung originally (my current one is about 3 years old, so probably something from about 2016). Now he's got I dont know what because PiL picked him up something "better" from duty free. It's too big for his little hands, so consider size too.

Rollercoaster1920 ah thank you, that's just the sort of info I needed. Whilst I have started thinking about getting an iPhone at some point, neither dh nor I currently have one so looks like that would be a non-starter.

I guess we need to stick with android for dc too.

If you have an ipad or mac computer you can do parental controls from those.

I discovered this after getting ipads for our kids. With no iPhone or macs in the house I have to control one ipad account from the other which means one child is on an adult account (she doesn't know and sticks to what we say she can use, unlike the other one!).

My dd (11) yr 7 secondary had my old phone on her birthday 6s and got an upgrade in September to the x as I upgraded mine. I'm debating getting her a new one for Christmas, but think she'd rather a laptop for school work.

Agree that it’s probably easier to be an android Or an iPhone family. We are the latter. 11yr old has my old iPhone 7 on A cheap contract. The most important thing was a decent amount of memory. My old iPhone 5 has a measly 8g 🙄. No use to man nor beast!

12yo has an iPhone 8, 17yo has the iPhone X. Me and DH tend to buy the new one every 3-4 years then the DC get the old ones. We pay for a sim only contract £10 a month each.

DS started with a second hand Samsung PAYG from eBay that was £50. Once he'd proven he could look after it, I got a contract and he has a Pixel 3a. It's fab. We use Google Family Link which has all the controls you will need.

11 year old has an iPhone 8 Plus and 12 year old has an iPhone 11.

Stick with android, it's hard to use the parental controls cross-platform. Google Family Link has parental controls and you control it from your own Android phone.

Also it means you can mix and match chargers without having 5 different types.

Make sure you get a rubber case for the phone and make it a condition of having the phone that she keeps the case on. A smashed screen is expensive to repair and these protect better than any screen protector (it tends to be the shock of a fall that breaks them).

I got DS an iPhone 12 mini for his birthday just before he started secondary in September. I only got it as all his friends at primary school already had iPhones and I didn’t want him to have anything to be taken the piss out of! I was worried about him starting secondary as he’s a bit of a Sheldon(which I love about him) and I’ve learnt through my older 3 DC that bullies will pick up on anything to bully about.

He has a Mira case which fits into a complete cover for front and back so totally protected.

He had a Moto before that which he hardly used but I can’t get him off the iPhone so perhaps not a wise choice!

I'm occasionally stunned to discover one of DS's friends has a new iPhone in school worth about a grand - I just can't fathom giving an 11 year old something that valuable to take into school. Mine have just got whatever Chinese or Korean android phone had good reviews at the time - bought outright for about £120 then have a £8 a month Giffgaff call/data package.

Some sort of Nokia. The other has a Samsung. We both have iPhones. And jobs. They can get iPhones when they buy their own phones with money they earn if they like

Iphone 11 here. Upgrading from a iPhone se. Her one broke won't switch on. All her mates have iPhones. I'm not keen on them myself

We are an android family. We have a selection of Motorola G series phones between us. Google family link let's you control what they can't/can't do on their phones and limit times