To buy ds a smart phone for his 9th birthday?

[Suliemantra]

Have I gone mad?

I genuinely thought there would be child safe internet enabled phones to buy. Nothing at car phone warehouse!

I want to be able to speak to him when he is at his dad's and be able to call him while he gets increasing independence to go to the green in our village.

His dad says I'm bonkers but can't I say no data use while out of the house and put high parental controls on the WiFi at home?

I don't understand the hysteria around smart phones for kids, surely it's so easy enough to restrict access to unwanted apps/downloads and impose parental controls? I love my phone and use it for loads of educational and inspirational activities and so do my kids - we have family spotify which they listen to, educational games, drawing games, photo edit, audio books access... The list of benefits is endless! So long as it's not an expensive smartphone and has a good case they can really enrich your child's down time.

Just going on the last post before mine i so winter whether a lot of folks are nervous for the same reason, ie they're not tech savvy enough to feel they have decent control? So if you're not confident you can successfully shield your child maybe it's not a good idea!

*So winter = do wonder! 😂

Please do not buy your 9 year old a smartphone unless you are happy to sit in the room with him every single time he plays with it and will randomly check what he's looking at.

If you want to get him a mobile get him a dumb one. He will soon learn if he runs out of credit quickly you won't put anymore on it.

Another thing to consider... youngsters carrying expensive phones are a target for thieves.

@TheseThingsAreFunAndFunIsGood The hysteria is due to what some parents allow their kids to do as they aren't aware what they have access to.

I've had to nail down the internet for other adult family members so their primary aged children didn't get access to things. Once the children were secondary age some could be trusted to behaviour themselves online but others couldn't, and only because their young/older sibling would grass them up did they behave.

Giving him a smartphone to go to the park will make him a target for muggers - the opposite of keeping him safe.

My kids have android watches with giffgaf sim cards in them so I can phone them through the watch and they can call up to 5 stored numbers. Theres an app too for tracking.

How about this? www.monqi.co