To ask when you gave it child a mobile phone?

[AmbitiousHalibut]

Looking for some wisdom really. I know it'll ultimately be a personal choice, and everyone's circumstances / maturity levels etc are different, but I'm trying to work out what's best for our DS (10).

I've heard a few friends with older kids saying that giving phones at Christmas in year 6 is great because the novelty wears off by the time they start secondary school. I get that. But then I hear of children being upset about things that have happened overnight in WhatsApp groups or becoming addicted to checking their phones the whole time, and I wonder whether we really need to bring it into our lives just yet. DS is a sensible, sensitive boy. He's not actually pushing for a phone (I think he's assumed we'd say no) but he is walking to and from school more often now and I'm starting to think it might be useful for him to have one. Plus, honestly, I'd love to exchange the odd text with him! He's a great kid.

Would love to hear anyone's experiences and pros and cons as I weigh it all up in my confused old brain.

@Vulpine - yes I saw that! No apple products either. Fair enough!

I'm no closer to a clear decision but it helps to know there's no one "right" answer.

The age rating is 16 actually...

I initially thought it was 13 but when I looked on the AppStore it states 12+ for its age rating. I can see you are correct and WhatsApp did increase the age from 13 to 16 last year. It's also worrying on checking the google play that for android the age rating is Pegi 3. There's a big difference on each platforms age rating and both platforms say something different the service provider.

And the reason she doesn't have it is there's been incidents of horrific bullying on there. Her school excluded 11 girls from year 7 for a bullying situation the year before dd started. 11 girls in year 7? When schools avoid excluding at all costs. Can only imagine how bad it must have been. At our initial interview on her starting they asked us to seriously consider not allowing WhatsApp due to the ease of ganging up to bully on there. My dd is autistic and I agreed with their request. I'll look at it again in a year or two now she'd 13.

I fully understand why you've not allowed her to have it and I apologise if I made it sound like I was being funny, the other op probably worded it better than I did. I'd make the same decision in your shoes.

Cyber bullying and bullying in general is a big problem, kids can be cruel and todays children don't get to leave it all school, phones give bullies potential access to their victims 24/7, my sister has recently removed my niece from Instagram for similar reasons. (So far fingers crossed anyway)

It's a nightmare to get the right balance of giving them freedom but keeping them safe.

Y6 for us. We’re going to give DS a phone after his SATs next year in prep for walking to school in Y7.