What age did you give DC a phone?

[DuckDuckPlatapys]

I am upgrading my iPhone which is well overdue. My iPhone is very old, the back camera is broken and just generally not working very well. I’m upgrading it and CEX said I’d get £10-£15 for it which isn’t worth it for me. DD is asking to have it but I’m unsure. She’s 9. I’d heavily monitor it and ban instagram/snapchat/tiktok, it’d be mainly for her to speak to her dad when she likes. It wouldn’t have a SIM in it (her dad has an iPhone so she could FaceTime/imessage). But I always thought I’d buy her one when she’s going to secondary school, she’s going into year 5 after the summer. She has a tablet so it’s not like she doesn’t have screens, it’d really just be for her to speak to her dad more. What age did you give your DC a phone?

Rule in this house is secondary school, so all age 12 really.

9 would be a hard no for me.
One of mine had a phone at 2 for medical reasons, in terms of a phone for use as a phone I wouldn’t consider anything below secondary.

Eldest was year 6 as he was walking to school and I wanted to track him, youngest was year 7 (when he started walking to school). Social media banned until 16.

I wouldn’t give a 9 year old a phone just because you have one kicking around, keep it aside for when she’s older.

Just to add DH is military and regularly deploys, I still didn’t deem that as a reason to give our children phones early. They could speak to him via my phone.

Mine got a basic, locked down phone with no social media in year 6 when they started walking home from school or ocassionally going to the park etc without me.

Ds had a Nokia £10 phone when he was 9 just because he went out to play with various friends on our estate and he had to text me where he was - he got a proper phone aged 11 for secondary school, same as dd.

The summer before they start secondary, as they have to get the school bus which is unreliable. For a few years the rule was I can pick it up and look through it anytime - it's not considered private.

Ds is starting secondary school..he'll have one for then..

I gave dd one for her 10th birthday. It is a skill to learn to.use it and i wanted her to do that before also tackling year 7. It's also been easier to mo it or messaging etc witb a friend group that I know.

Ps I honestly think it goes tv- computer- laptop- tablet- phone in terms of what’s acceptable for children- a tv is far away and doesn’t have the rays or radiation a phone has ((although the brightness of some YouTube videos is terrifying!). I don’t know where we started hanging kids phones, but I wish to god dumb phones (those Nokia ones that aren’t practical as no kids have the credit to be ringing or texting) would come out with WhatsApp so kids could keep in contact with everyone but not be looking at other apps/ games on a phone