AIBU to ask some naive smartphone questions here?

[planesoverhead]

My DS is coming up to his 8th birthday. He loves to take a lot of photos, usually on our phones (DH has an iphone and I have an HTC), which is fine except when he runs the battery down more quickly than we'd like.

We do have a couple of old digital cameras, which he will use if we remember to take them out with us, but their photo quality isn't as good, and they don't have a movie setting.

My first question are:

1. if I get him a secondhand smartphone for his birthday, but don't connect it to a network, can it still be used as a camera?

1. If, when he's a little older we want him to use it as a mobile phone, but without access to the internet, would we be able to connect him up for voice only?

You see, I'm trying to think of a solution that will grow with him, rather than buying him a camera that will soon become redundant. I'm also trying to keep the cost low so I don't have to worry about him damaging it or losing it.

Yep, in fact I've got an old smartphone that I'm using as a mp3 player as it's easier to put my music on. As for the blocking Internet, texts etc... Tesco do a capped tariff. So you choose what you want and everything else will be capped so you cant go over a certain amount or use it all.

What about an iPod Touch? A bit pricey but seems to fit the bill:

store.apple.com/uk/buy-ipod/ipod-touch/16gb-blue

why not buy him a second-hand camera instead?

DD took her smartphone abroad on holiday this year but without the sim card so she could take photos and use free wifi but not run up data charges.

I'm not sure how you would turn off the internet bit of the phone though. There might be a setting somewhere but they could probably just turn it back on again.

Get a PAYG sim from Tesco.

No big bills.

Yes - some tarrifs on PAYG only permit calls and texts so you'd be ok there. I think though there has been a shift from just buying a tenner credit once in a blue moon to a "rolling" thing were you have to keep topping up. One of our children is on an ancient PAYG tarrif from Tesco which is fine - a tenner lasts a lifetime, but when we tried to find a similar tarrif for another child we couldn't.

Second-hand camera and a £10 dumbphone when he gets older.

Smartphones (and ipods) are used by boys mainly for looking at porn. I wouldn't buy my son one under any circumstances.

£10 on Three lasts forever.

how do you know smartphones are only for looking at porn for young lads? I know a lot of kids who have iPods at 8 years old. I'm sure the last thing on an 8 year olds mind is porn. I would get him an iPod touch. it doesn't HAVE to connect to wifi at all. you can sit with him and download games together just put the parental lock on it so he can't run up bills (most games need an internet connection like castle clash and things. It's up to you) get him an iPod!

maybe not at 8, but if he still has it at 11/12 he will be looking at porn. At least that's what my son told me the boys did with their ipod touches on recent school residential trip.

AgaPanthers they must have been stored images as ipod touches don't have 3g capability and I'd be amazed if they were connecting to the wifi of a school residential place to access those images. Saved images can just as easily be put onto a camera.

AgaP, if it doesn't have an internet connection (see my original question) he won't be able to look at porn even if he wants to.

yes they were connecting to wifi. Blocking porn is essentially impossible, if you have internet access porn IS available. Regardless of filtering.

And any kind of tablet/ipod/smartphone WILL have wifi.

We have an iPad, and on that we can disable access to Safari, and prevent new apps from being installed without a password. Presumably an iPhone has similar restrictions?

Yes, you can do that.

But I don't see the point of a smartphone without internet access, you'd be better off with a camera, much better for learning about photographs, better picture quality overall, and cheaper too.