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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

iphones in year 5?

74 replies

tripletrouble · 16/01/2012 23:31

My DS (year 5) was late out of school today because he was looking at a classmates new iphone4 ( the new one). DS's eyes were big with excitement and I could tell that he was wishing that he had one too. AIBU to think that 9 is too young to have a new iphone? Nine-year-olds should be kicking footballs around and playing games!! It just puts pressure on parents who can't afford the latest gadgets for themseves let alone their children, and makes the children who haven't got them unhappy!

OP posts:
IUseTooMuchKitchenRoll · 17/01/2012 07:57

My nine year old has an iPod. He plays games on it and as his Dad and I aren't together, it gets used for FaceTime and sometimes I text him when he's with his Dad. He could live without it though, it's for fun it's not a need.

My 11yo has a Samsung phone that he got when he started secondary school, and the 9yo will get something simelar when he starts secondary. Conveniently for me, they are both summer born so phones are birthday presents before they start secondary.

I wouldn't give them my old iPhones, I sold the last one for £120 which paid for my new one!

lesley33 · 17/01/2012 08:07

YABU. Nobody needs an expensive iphone - kids and adults. And there will always be kids with things that make other kids jealous.

But if a family can afford an iphone no problem for their 9 year old, then I don't see why not.

Kayano · 17/01/2012 08:18

We I need my expensive iPhone Hmm

I need to MN at all hours and it's really no one else's business surely?

bigTillyMint · 17/01/2012 08:21

9 or 10 is way too young for an iPhone. Do you live in Wagsville?

IUseTooMuchKitchenRoll · 17/01/2012 08:23

I need my iPhone too. How else am I supposed to check Facebook, read and write emails or play tetris in random places?

LoremIpsum · 17/01/2012 08:25

It would have been more expensive to go out and buy new phones than to hand on our old ones. Maybe we should have done that on principle so that nobody could be judgey about them having iPhones.

lisad123 · 17/01/2012 08:27

Yanbu, I was going to post an Aibu that a year 4 child got an iPhone for Xmas!! Madness IMO

EmpressOfTheSevenOceans · 17/01/2012 08:42

Hand-me-downs are different though, I think. Especially if you accept the greater risk of a child's phone getting broken / lost / nicked. DD loves the apps on hers but we wouldn't dream of paying out for a new one.

Theas18 · 17/01/2012 09:04

Crackers parenting I'm afraid and I'm sorry if that offends the mumsnetter who's child has one "because it's only an ipod with a phone on".

Maybe it is but it also gives your child 24hr access to the "wonders " of the internet good and bloody awful. A primary school child doesn't need that surely? Do you understand the phones enough to put safe search on and also realise that safe search isn't really that good.....don't post about cyber bullying if you haven't the sense to restrict your childs internet use to times/ ways that you can easily police. At primary school you should be policing it.

I also agree with "it's too much responsibility" A hugely good point. Second hand or not it (well to me!) is a heck of an expense for a child to loose/break (remember teary posts on here about "my child dropped their ipod after Xmas it's apples fault it's broken and apple wont replace......." no sorry your child DROPPED it!) quite apart from the "mugger magnet" it also makes them.

I am only just thinking my 15yr old might be able to have my old iphone when I upgrade.

OK self-opinionated, backwards old sod backing out here!

whatstheetiquette · 17/01/2012 09:14

I have just got my first iphone (old model). I find it extremely useful compared to my old basic PAYG.

I suppose if you give a primary school child an iphone, particularly a new one, you just have to be prepared for it to be damaged or lost and not mind losing a lot of money. I personally wouldn't, but the main reason for that is money. If money was no object, I don't see the problem.

cantspel · 17/01/2012 09:22

The only difference is parents who do give an iphone dont give a stuff what other parents do but the parents who dont like to go into moral outrage mode at parents who do.

wannaBe · 17/01/2012 09:40

actually, nobody needs a mobile phone - we have been conditioned to need them. That's not to say that owning one is wrong per se, I own an iphone and I love it and use it as more than just a phone. But this notion that we must be contactable at all times is what leads us to believing that we need a mobile phone. People have managed without them for decades and nothing has happened to them.

As for this idea that a phone keeps children safe - actually, it doesn't - giving children expensive phones turns them into victims, of thieves, muggers, (one of the biggest reasons for muggings is for mobile phones), of ciber bullies, and unlike a computer you have absolutely no control over who they're texting/chatting to..

FredFredGeorge · 17/01/2012 09:41

I don't think there's anything wrong with a 9year old having an iPhone, but some of the justification on this thread is ludicrous! "It would be more expensive to go out and buy a new phone than give them our old iPhone" - well no, a new phone costs 10 quid, a 2nd hand iPhone can be sold for 100.

"Too much texting for PAYG" - unlimited texts (and other stuff) for 10 quid a month with Giff Gaff for example, there's no subsidised blackberry on contract at that rate.

Buy your kid a smart phone if you want, but don't pretend it's just because it's cheaper!

mumatron · 17/01/2012 09:49

my ds (11) was given an iphone for his birthday by his dad. The only reason i don't like it is that I think it makes him a target for possible muggings etc.

I also make sure he does not have it in his room at bed time and when he is supposed to be doing homework/reading.

he already has an ipod touch and i agree there is no difference between the two.

If I had my way he wouldn't even have a phone at all until he started high school.

wannaBe · 17/01/2012 10:27

yes agree with ffg - an iphone certainly isn't cheaper.

My iphone is coincidentally on payg (dh bought the phone outright), and o orange if I top up by a tenner I get:

400 free texts
100 mb of data

If you use your top up wisely you can for instance buy 100 minutes for £5 so you're not calling at 25p a minute... so actually you could, for a tennerget 400 texts, 200 minutes and 100 mb of data, or 100 minutes and an extra 250 meg of data for the other half of the top up.

No child needs more than that.

Do that with a £10 phone and it certainly isn't cheaper to buy an iphone - over two years an iphone will cost you upwards of £500 and similar if you buy it outright, whereas if you only top up by a tenner a month and use the top up as I suggested it will only cost you £250 with a cheap £10 phone..

Fleurdebleurgh · 17/01/2012 12:04

Good luck to all those who have made their iphone weilding pre-teens a fruitful target for muggers.

I can only assume none of you live in an inner city area.

Theas18 · 17/01/2012 12:15

totally agree fleur and I promise I won't update my "spreadsheet" for when they say "little X" is being bullied or has sent indecent photos to random acquaintances etc

NotnOtter · 17/01/2012 12:21

Just more screens for kids to stare at
From 3.30 pm these kids will barely look up from one IMO
Sad

cuteboots · 17/01/2012 12:46

YANBU- Far to young !!! and my son at eight is still being taught how to out sentences together with full stops and spaces inbetween words. Why would he need an Iphone for gods sake . The world has gone mad!!!

Butkin · 17/01/2012 13:10

I think YABU although at DD's school they are not allowed to take in phones.

She is 8 but has a mobile phone and an ipod Touch. We haven't bought her an iphone as they are still too expensive but having seen how much pleasure she gets out of her Touch I can completely see how she would get use out of an iphone.

The only downside I can see is the mugging element - otherwise I think this is just an old fashioned attitude.

valiumredhead · 17/01/2012 13:20

Ds has had a mobile since 9 as he walks to school which is a 15 - 20 min walk (it's actually about a 10 min fast walk but they all dawdle!) lots of kids have i phones. Ds has a £30 version of an i phone and thinks it's great which is good as that is all he will be having as an expensive phone makes you a target for mugging imo.

PippiLongBottom · 17/01/2012 13:27

Dh and I both have an iphone. DD doesn't need a phone yet (year5) because she doesn't really go anywhere alone but she oes have an Ipod touch that she got for Christmas. It is basically an iphone without the phone. She only uses it for games anyway.

mumatron · 17/01/2012 13:31

Notnotter as a matter of fact my does plenty of other things apart from stare at his iphone. He plays football, goes to scouts, reads books plays out on his bike.

It's a phone fgs. I don't let him sit and play on 24-7 just because it's an Iphone.

Some of us are quite capable of making sure our dc are sensible with their gadgets.

Some people will get hysterical over anything.

LoremIpsum · 17/01/2012 13:36

Wannabe, I guess it's different here (not in the UK). There are some things which are a lot cheaper in the UK and phones, though not iPhones, must be one of them. Plans differ too. Muggings are rare enough to be really not on the radar. We would have handed down whatever handset we had, selling it wouldn't have occurred to either of us and I'm not sure who'd buy them given they're battered and scuffed.

A phone is a phone, I don't see a kid with an iPhone as such a big deal.

squeakytoy · 17/01/2012 13:38

It may just be a "phone" but to muggers and thieves it has a resale value that makes any young vulnerable kid a target. It is a daily occurrence around here to hear about kids being robbed of their phones, or expensive trainers.

A 9year old is often not savvy enough to keep it hidden, and will happily be showing it off to their mates, not clued up enough to notice the older kids clocking it, ready to take it off him.

Not a risk I would take with my child.