To ask your opinion on 9 year old with iPhone 7?

[WellFlipYou]

My little brother has been given an iPhone 7 for Christmas. He's just turned 9 years old. Aibu thinking he's too young? It's been 2 days and he won't stop texting me. It's cute but driving me nuts!

My daughter had an iPhone 8 last year at just turned 10, kids do seem to get them younger nowadays. My ds is 9 and clukd have had one this year but he wanted a Nintendo switch instead! The novelty will wear off in a couple of days :-)

My 12 year old half sister just got bought an iphone X for Xmas!

Not unusual. He's lucky to have such a good phone but lots of kids have smart phones now. You can't really do anything about it so not worth stressing over it. I'd focus on helping him get sensible use out of it. Have your parents set boundaries e.g. no phone in bed at night?

Yes unless he travels long distances on his own to school he is too bloody young. Unfiltered and unsupervised access to the internet, what could go wrong .

I think it's too young for a phone unless there's a specific need of some kind - eg to keep in touch with an NRP. Even then I don't really see why such an expensive phone us called for.

My DD is 9 and asks about a phone quite a bit - the answer is and will remain that she can have one when she goes to secondary school.

Yes I think it’s too young. I’ve told my dd she can have one once she starts secondary school, and will be catching the bus. . She has a kindle so the can play games on that and I can supervise what she sees and plays with
At the moment she’s either with me, with her dad or at school, so there is no need for her to have a phone.

I wouldn't personally give a 9y a phone. We went for 11y and starting secondary school here.

The fact that is an iPhone is a non issue for me. DD has always had iPhones. It works for us.

I am sure the testing will die down. At present it is a novelty and he probably doesn't have many of his own friends to message - as most likely they won't have phones yet.

I think it’s stupid giving children top of the range tech that they’ll probably break or lose. It doesn’t teach them anything about the value of money or that expensive things have to be worked for.

I wouldn't give an iPhone to a child of any age (under 18). It is likely to be broken or lost, especially if they take it to school which most teenagers do. It could also be stolen.
If they want a phone to text their friends, access the apps and internet, use social media etc. they can have a cheaper phone which still does all of those things.

I don't think a 9 year old should have a phone at all as they are not mature enough to use it safely. If it is locked down and heavily monitored I guess it could be OK.

You can get an iPhone 7 for a 100 quid these days. It’s hardly top of the range tech, it’s 3 years old.

I'm pretty relaxed and let my 8 year old play fortnite etc but just don't see why a 9 year old would need a phone. Surely they don't have friends to text or go anywhere without their parents where they would need to arrange plans to be picked up etc.

• I wouldn't give an iPhone to a child of any age (under 18). It is likely to be broken or lost, especially if they take it to school which most teenagers do. It could also be stolen. If they want a phone to text their friends, access the apps and internet, use social media etc. they can have a cheaper phone which still does all of those things. *

The problem with cheaper phones is they're much less secure/hackable, iPhones genuinely are better in this regard. DD and many of her teenage friends had their parents' hand-me-down iPhones. Obviously it depends on how sensible your kid is.

But that's older kids, not primary age!

It's not particularly unusual to have a phone at 9. We gave ours phones for their 10th birthdays, they are both young in their school year so had them for a few moths before going into P.7, when nearly everybody has one.

They pretty much all do have iphones. You can then imessage for free, facetime and they are pretty reliable.

I'd love to know where you get a 7 for £100. The dds got 6ses earlier this year and dh got a 7, all refurbed ones and certainly couldn't have got any of them for £100.

Family Pact app to manage access.

(IMO it is ridiculous to give any child an expensive smartphone. Ours get basic phones and save up to buy themselves something fancier. Never lost or broke a phone. Could this be because they bought it themselves?)

My 9yo brother was given my dad's old iPhone (a 6, I think) - he uses it to call his cousin and chat about Roblox and play Pokémon Go with his dad. He literally only uses it for these two things.

I agree it is silly buying expensive tech but not really any harm if handed down with controlled usage

Ours get an iPhone SE (so still an iPhone for the features such as find my iPhone, app sharing etc) but is on a cheap contract (didn’t have to pay for phone - £10 a month unlimited texts and calls and some data.
They get this the xmas of year 6 so that they

• have a few months to get used to using it before they really need it when they go to secondary (they do a 2 week transition in June)
• can get used to the social nuances of texting (which is totally different to talking to someone) with people they have grown up with since they were 3 rather than completely new people who may not understand they humour etc
• we know the parents of thier friends at the moment so easier to monitor /discuss with other parents any teething problems eg child x is texting at midnight etc
• we start leaving them at home /letting them go off to another shop when we are in town, having a phone give them/is confidence that we can contact them instantly if needed.
• they aren’t allowed to take them to school in primary and even when in secondary aren’t allowed them at night.

My 9 year old has an old iPhone 5 that was just sitting in a drawer. She uses it to play games and message her friends. It’s actually come in handy that I can contact her so easily as well. She’s just got a pay as you go. Will upgrade when she goes to secondary. It won’t last forever don’t worry, she was like that when she first got the phone haha

It's not something I'd give to a 9 year old, especially an expensive item that's easily damaged or lost, but it seems the age for getting phones/tech gifts is getting lower and lower so probably not all that unusual. I'm sure if we got dd9 a phone she'd find a use for it and some of her classmates have them (though most don't yet) but we don't intend to get them for ours until @ 11when they'll start getting themselves to and from school and just generally need to be a bit more independent.

If you're going to give a 9 year old a phone it's better to give them a hand me down iPhone (which a 7 is almost certainly at this point) rather than buying a cheaper throwaway phone specifically.

Depends on the level of independence they have - mine got one at 10 as it was when they started going places without me and being able to contact them was useful. I did not give them one before because they were always with me! So to me it’s a stage of independence thing rather than an age thing.

I'd think that the parents had more money than sense.

My 8yo got my old hand me down iPhone SE for Christmas. She's had an ipad since she was 6 so is quite used to texting family members and doesn't pester people. I think I was 9/10 when I got my first mobile which was a Triumph brick and then I always had the latest on-trend phone, Nokia 3310, Motorolo Razor etc, I am imagining in comparison for the times they were pretty expensive.

I don't really see the problem.

We were out for a family meal last night, two nine year olds and a six year old all had iphones, although I suspect the younger one had hers so as not to steal her brother's to play games.