Kids and smart phones

[Fatasfook]

What age did you get your kid a smart phone?

It's got younger with each child. Eldest 16, middle 14, youngest 12.

10 - when he started doing the 10 minute walk to and from school by himself. It was my v old iPhone 4 at the time. We upgraded it when he started secondary school this year (although still only to my old iPhone 5 (I think) when I upgraded anyway. He now travels to a different town by himself for school so I consider it v important. It wasn’t so important when just walking to the local school but o wanted him to get used to the responsibility of one before secondary school, if that makes sense.

11th birthday for 1st smartphone.

The both had brick phones at the start of Y5 (when they started walking to school and playing out and making ad-hoc arrangements with friends). Proving they could use the brick phone sensibly (e.g. having it with them, charged up and being aware of how much credit they had) was a condition of getting the smartphone.

Mine had my old phone at 7/8 (without a SIM card) then finally got a sim card and a different old phone of mine at 11 ready for walking to/from school - Had to prove they could look after it, keep it charged etc. before getting a SIM card - would have put it off for longer if it wasn't for walking to & from school!