...to think that kids really don't need mobile phones?

[Arana]

I've noticed a lot of occasions where a child (usually between say 10 and 16) has committed some misdemeanour, and is to be punished. So often though I hear "oh I can't take away DS/DD's phone, they need it for emergencies."

What sort of emergency does a 15 year old need a phone for all the time? For a true emergency (fire, car accident etc) there are phone boxes (there's still plenty around), and I'm sure nobody would object to someone borrowing their mobile phone to call an ambulance.

Mobile phones make life more convenient I'll admit - it saves you coming home first if you want to pop round to your friend's house etc, but surely part of the punishment of having your phone taken away should be curtailment of the lifestyle it enhances?

My kids aren't old enough to (allegedly) need phones, but from a personal point of view if I leave my phone at home when I go to work, it just means I have to keep my commitments, and make a phone call using a land line if I have to change anything important.

I can't believe how old I feel writing this, but I never had a mobile phone until I was 17 (30 now) and I feel like kids are in more danger from having mobiles (exposure to unsolicited texts, photos, bullying) than I ever was from NOT having a phone.

Yep, like MSN but for Blackberry. She asked for that type of phone as everyone had one, then boom, two weeks later, the bullying started. Her DM got her that specific phone to avoid this (she is very much "they may pick on her if she doesnt have the right stuff"). Plus, no apps.

I'm all for a basic phone with text being the most fancy thing it does.

I can't imagine "tracking" my children! Are they to have no privacy at all?

I think her mum needs to block it for her, I am not into this they have to have what everybody else ha

Everyone can track everyone in our family - the boys track their grandfather etc!

Id hate to be tracked thats quite creepy although my sister lost her phone recently and managed to track it to a car park she had dropped it so I suppose it is good for that, I wouldn't track my children or husband though

Plus, what if they say "we are going bowling then wandering round the shops"....then ask one of their friends to keep their phone while they go elsewhere and do whatever else they aren't supposed to?

Or maybe Im too sneaky

Am I being sanctimonious when I say I'd rather trust than track? Maybe I am..............

"there are phone boxes (there's still plenty around)"

Er, no there aren't. And there is never one when you need one.

I think most parents let their children have phones for their own peace of mind. DD (12) got one when she started high school as she has to travel by bus and isn't as independent as I was at that age. It means I can take her to the shopping mall and let her wander off on her own without me and she can ring me when the school bus is late. It meant that she could ring me when we had loads of rain in July with lots of localised floods and I could go and rescue her from school. Also, I can meet her off the school bus if there has been any nastiness from the other children.

She doesn't use her phone a lot, but it is there when she needs it. I don't think children that age need iPhones or the latest smartphone, but surely a mobile phone is the replacement for the spare 2p I always used to carry around when I needed to use a payphone.

I don't think so seeker why need to be on top of where everybody is in the words of mumsnet, it is a little controling

Personally I think that the tracking facility is great - it gives the DSSs a huge sense of security when they are out and about in Paris.

I gave each of mine a phone for starting secondary school. The first one because he needed to get a coach to go twenty miles there was only one coach there and back, if he missed it he was buggered. The other two got driven, but they got a phone then just because the first child did.

There have been many, many times when I have thought 'OMG - what an earht would have happened if they had not had their phones with them?' but equally I have realised that as a generation of children grow up never knowing life without mobiles they can easily come unstuck when we/they assume that we all have access to one, and then we realise that we don't. Either it's lost, it's out of credit, the battery is flat, no signal, etc. That can cause utter chaos when no other contigency plan has been discussed.

I have had an absolutely farcical and very frustrating, worrying situation with one of my DC's recently, all because he had run out of credit on his phone, and I went to pick him up from somewhere and he wasn't there. It really was a nightmare - you could not make it up, the hassle and disruption it caused.

Oh its 40p to use a phone box these days for a few minutes and tbh they are few around, our town centre has 1 phone box

I also think that the fact that the DSSs have telephones and tracking allows them more rather than less freedom. Much easier to let them do stuff on their own if they are reachable than if they are not.

In my area there are hardly any call boxes left! Yanbu for asking why some kids need them but yabu for not realising the reasons why some older kids do.

My 9yo wants a mobile-but i am not buying her one until she starts going out alone, until then she doesn't need one an won't be getting one. When she starts high school i will be letting her have one for emergencies, such as being followed, needing an ambulance, needing to call the police, for ringing me if she starts her first period-there are lots of reasons why having a mobile at high school age is a good thing. As long as you disable the internet, especially with the content they can access

But, Bonsoir, the Tracker won't keep them alive. It affords them more security? How? It allows them more freedom? What, to go further, to go into situations they wouldn't feel confident to without the Tracker?

This, to me, seems to have an opposite effect of what the Tracker is for.

Without it they feel a little less safe, a little less freedom and so they only go into situations they feel confident enough to handle - surely this is better?

I was about to say YANBU until I realised you were not talking about 6-10 yos. My dd has friends with mobiles at 7yo and I see absolutely no need. My dcs go nowhere without an adult so why would they need a communication tool. If they are at their dads for the weekend if they need/want to talk to me or I to them me and their dad have mobiles that are capable of that.

But with regards to older children I think YABU that there is no reason at all to give them, I had a mobile at 13 and although sometimes it may have caused worry that I didn't answer etc, it invariably saved more worry on the times they could get hold of me/I could ring to say plans had changed at school.

And as for phone boxes there are no working phone boxes in our area, they are in the process of removing them altogether.

I really don't understand why being tracked gives you more freedom.

Op agree and disagree my ds has a mobile but i dont see the need for internet ready phone or a balckberry

If these phones were REALLY for emeganceys then a £5 phone thats texts and only makes phone calls will do

I sursepct many parents get caught up in trying to be cool and the matey parent

Not only dose giving your child and internet ready phone put your child at risk from being mugged it also puts them at risk of facebook and internet bullying

My ds onky has his phone when he is leaving the house at my childs hoilday club you would be amazed how many chikdren had there phones

Why the frigg would you need. Phone theire are crb staff and the leader has a phone parents in 2011 are weak willed

I like em

Dh and I both work full time and travel. Phones are how we all keep in touch.

sursepct many parents get caught up in trying to be cool and the matey parent

My kids would laugh their heads off at me being their mate here have a phone can we be pals now

Also its disables chikdren tonbe able to sort issues out for them sleves for instance chikdren phoning their parents from school tonhave a moan or like my mates kids on face book during lesson and her replying

thankfully my chikds school blocks the signal so they cant be used anyway

My children have never phoned me to moan about friends , maybe your friend just has whingey children I have heard of parents marching up to school though because a kid has text about a teacher

Mrsjay well i dont know what else you would call a grown adult buying a 9,10,11,12 year old a £100-200 phone with free regin of the inetrnet