do all of your 9 year olds have mobile phones?

[thighslapper]

Conversation with a pal whos 9 year old is the only kid in his class without one......some of them have one of those iphone jobbies (are they not fortunes???)

I ask as ds told me that aged 7 he was the only kid to NOT have a nintendo ds....

NOW he tells me he is the only kid to NOT have a pet in his class..

Pal tells me she is thinking of getting her boy a mobile..

How do you not make them too different from their peers, BUT how the hell do you draw a sensible line in the sand and say ENOUGH???

I wouldn't want DD to have one when at the park or put playing with friends as I'd be more concened then about older children/teens trying to take it from her, and her getting hurt or scared in the process.

my son is 11 and just got one 3 months agao he can only have it when we are going out with out him so we can see if hes ok or when he is going out on his own, the school dose not allow phones so we dont allow him to take it.

btw the phone he has , dose not have internet , a camrea or anything like that it cost £30 and is the worlds most basic phone its for me checking on him and him checking in thats it.

oh and ds does have a nintendo ds which he got when he was 7 and we do have lots of pets 3 dogs and two cats and he feeds them every other night and takes it it in turns with me to pick up dog mess on walks

DSS was just bought one for his 10th birthday.

This is because when he plays out he goes into areas he shouldn't and his mum often 'has to drive around the neighbourhood looking for him'.

Personally, I think it is a waste of money, he should be told where he can and cannot go and if he repeatedly disregards the rules then he shouldn't be let out. But then I'm obviously a hardfaced cow.

(I think going to high school is about the right age - but I was 17 before I had my first one, how did I survive??)

hulababy - that's why we keep hold of my sons unless he is going out and when i say going out i mean to the shops for me or going to the library or something.

a boy at my dads school was stabbed 3 times for his i phone on the way home from school last years.

he sadly died i feel very sorry for the parents but you wouldn't let a child walk around with £1000 so why do people let their children walk around with things that cost £1000 whether its a up grade or not its a must have along with a blackberry my sons phone is so ugly and has only basic features

Mine doesn't have one either and I don't care if his friends do. He will have one next year but that is because he will start middle school and have to catch buses alone etc. It depends on your circumstances I suppose. I know alot of children that have them but their children are seperated and it used as a communication for those reasons

Also just to add DSS is dyslexic and can't manage text messages, so since his birthday beginning of May he has not used £10 worth of credit. Although why would he?

There's a recent thread on this here.

I'm still surprised people aren't taking on board the health issues.

God Maypole1 what a horrific story.

If they're walking/travelling on the bus on their own, then I guess it's a good idea.

However, I think someone should design a kid's phone where only an adult can type in and lock the numbers.

So you would just have your parents mobile and the police or something. Then they can call in an emergency but not be on to their mates for hours.

my ds is very responsible he's never broken it lost it and he feels safer with his phone if teenagers ever tried to take it we'd know the culprit anyway so it would be pointless :)

They have, vintage - for example this

well mine already walks on his own but there are lots of people about so i don't really worry about that. It's travelling to the next town, a few miles etc that is more worrying

lets face it. We all coped PERFECTLY WELL walking miles and miles to high schoolwith a victoria biscuits tin full of home economics stuff which your parents wouldn't eat when you got home, without a mobile phone. We went out clubbing, caught taxis, had boyfriends, got into trouble, stayed out of trouble, got jobs, did allsorts, all without mobile phones. It is possible :o

i know they had to get really tough at the school , even though they had a mobile ban they had to start taking the phones if found till the end of the year instead of till the end of the week, also i pods as so many parents were allowing their children to flout the rules

their argument was it was to keep in touch with them when in reality they were just texting their mates during class or whatever or on face book,
the school said the parents should make plans for pick ups and what nots before the child left home any changes and they could ring the school.

he was set to go to get all a* at gcse very sad

that really informed my decision on what type of phone i would get my son and also when he was allowed it.

their was also a case at the school were boys were found to be taking pictures with their phones under the tables in class i sure we can all guess what the pictures were of , well several boys ended up excluded

My eldest is 10, and though i dont class it as his phone, when i moved on to a contract i had about £40 remaining with car phone warehouse for a trade in, so I used it to get a PAYG for the house. When he is away on school trips he uses it. A lot of his class mates have iphones. He i know wants/has asked for an an itouch, its purely for the games!

DD got a cheap PAYG mobile for christmas, she is 11 and will be off to secondary by bus, so i think its sensible that she can get in touch in an emergency

lots of her friends (Y6) have very expensive touch screen phones with email and internet access on them - why?? mine is not even that special, cheap and old but does what i need it to!

however, already, at primary, these kids are using their phones for bullying and nastiness that the parents are by and large oblivious to.

9 yo will get one when she is off to secondary and no sooner.

we have no Wii, XBox, nintendo DS etc etc, one family PC and one TV - Not for financial reasons BTW, just that I am a mean mother!

we have however a house overflowing with books and books galore!

should add ..my son is also very responsible, but that doesnt mean he is getting a phone ! lol!

AandK would you, so you know every one in your city, the boy at my dads school was stabbed by young adults early 20s they were not known to the boy or his family. turned out they were not from the area.

I think basic payg phones are fine my ds never runs out of his £10 a month credit and if he did it wouldn't be topped till the due date anyway. I obviously never had one at his age but I think new technology is an easier way of life and at least this way I don't have to speak to the ex

as I already put in my previous post I live in a little village!!!!!

My DS is apparantly the only kid in his class without a phone.

He'll be getting one at christmas as it's his last christmas before secondary school.

No way would he have one at 9 years old!

He doesn't need one at 11, it's just a bloody fashion statement.

I don't let ds take it to school he doesn't need it there. he doesn't take it to cub camp they're not allowed he would never get a phone as good as mine till he was old enough to get his own contract. :)

AandK thats good just get so worried by this i wouldnt every want another child to be robbed or anything like that just for a phone

All the free-range kids we know have one, on at least a part-time basis. That's often age 8-9yo around here. Many of DD's yr4 mates have one of their own (DD has access to an old one that doubles as my spare).