to ask if YOUR 7 year old has a mobile phone?

[Wellhellooothere]

So a report out today reckons that HALF of 7 years olds have a mobile phone - nearly 50% of 5-10 year olds with phones, most by 7 years old.

IS that true?? I can't think of a single 7 year old with a mobile, and I work in a school... the age seems to be Year 6 going onto Year 7 where we are.

So tell me, am I wrong, does your 7 year old have their own proper mobile phone? I don't mean access to a tablet or one of those vtech toy things, I mean a real phone as this report says??

YABU - yes they have a phone
YANBU - no way, too young

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/mobile-phones-children-kids-a9308266.html

My DS got one for Christmas - he will be 9 next month (year 4). There's around 19 boys in his year at school, and as far as I'm aware, all but 5 got one for Christmas.

He has my old iPhone 6, so I have it under the family sharing and parenting controls from my iPhone. He can't download anything without a notification coming to my phone first to allow or decline it, and I've also set up a screen time limit, so he can't access any apps between certain times.

I don't see an issue with it

My 7 year old doesn't but plenty of her friends have an iPod touch type thing. So it basically does everything a smartphone does except call. You can even FaceTime, WhatsApp etc etc. They're doing all sorts on there and the parents think it's fine 'as it can't make calls'

In my opinion it's not the calls that they need to be worries about and it might be the only useful reason to actually have a phone.

My dd is now 10, but she has had a real mobile since she was 7.

Prior to that she had an old phone with no service that she could play apps on.l when we waited at doctors appts and such.

Our big impetus for getting her phone service was Pokémon go. Hot spotting her was not working well. We did some investigating and the cheapest way was actually just to add her to our cell plan.

My DD is 6. She is sometimes allowed to play with my old iPhone, under direct supervision and when she stops I take it back and put it away. She may describe this to her friends as having her own phone, but it isn't really. Happy with that sent up for the next five years or so!

thisisthetime agree: I'm not worried about the calls. I'm obviously worried about the stuff most parents are concerned about (social media/porn etc) but above all I'm worried about the general addictive qualities of phone culture and the idea that the phone becomes a leisure activity in its own right.

She has a tablet but that is supervised (and its bad enough already with that). I'm buggered if she's having a device she can go on at will.

My ds (6) has a phone, with calls/data. He mostly uses as a tablet (ie for games, watching netflix etc) but if we're out and theres no wifi its handy.
He doesn't really use it alone and only really WhatsApps his grand parents and cousins occasionally.
I don't see the issue.

My almost ten year old does, and I'm not that thrilled about it. But she has no social media (obviously) and mainly uses it for watching YouTube drawing videos, making little films, playing games. We only got her it because her friends were making plans via WhatsApp and she felt left out.

Mine does. It’s an old iPhone on a PAYG sim. She has no credit though and is not allowed to tell her friends she has one. She is very sensible and uses it for music, the camera and video / photo editing apps. She mainly uses it for a specific hobby (would be outing to go into detail). She isn’t allowed to take the phone upstairs.

She doesn’t have social media or text or make calls. Smart phones are great devices and I’m happy with her having it and using it for the purposes she does!

The one my DD has is a Monqi - I have to approve all apps, and I can see the texts she sends people. It's a good way to get started safely.

Our DS has just got a mobile phone at 11.5 (yr7) but with strict limitations - still don't think he needs it but he was in the minority and he did earn it through hard work and has to pay for the contract (through chores) to keep it.
However there were loads of kids who had phones from a young age at DSs primary so can believe this report.

My DD(9) doesn't have a phone she has an iPod and a tablet but I don't really understand why they are materially any different to a phone other than the cost of the SIM.
If she wanted to use social media or message friends or do video messaging she could easily do so via her ipod.or tablet.
Pretty much exactly the same dangers are there even if there is no SIM.

p.s. i think it's probably 50/50 in her class year 5 with regards to phone ownership

Wow some very alarmist and narrow minded views here.

My 7 year old has an iPhone with a working SIM and her own phone number. She has her own iPad too which she got when she was 5. My son is 3 and has his own iPad too. It’s in a shock proof case and stops him wanting to use mine. Neither child has access to my phone or iPad - I have my work emails on them and sensitive information on it.

If this thread had been how many 7 year olds have been allowed to play with your phone the answer would be very different. Far better their own restricted devices, with no messaging, no potentially sensitive information, set up very specifically for them.

IPhones are part of everyday technology. I want my children to be aware of the dangers, to grow up and into the technology rather than to go from zero to their own phone at secondary school with all the other changes, hormonal, school, relationships that hit them at that time.

My 7yo loves creating stop gap animations on her phone with Lego or play dough. Her patience and editing skills are very good for her age. She also loves doing photos and editing. She is part of a running club and loves to track her progress or use it as an iPod. She has WhatsApp for family but I am in every group and she isn’t allowed private chats. She is learning to use this great technology for what I consider good purposes (away from pressures of social media). She doesn’t watch or create YouTube videos, she isn’t on Instagram (I don’t even put her face or name on my public one).

Her friends don’t know she has a phone, she was told under no condition is she to mention it at school or it is instantly removed. She has to give it to us at bedtime and will often go several days before asking for it again. It’s just a tool to her.

iPhones aren’t the villains. Our children will have them (or similar). I’d rather mine grew up and into using it, gradually expanding their use, understanding what is good and what isn’t right. What could be a danger.

I can't vote but my 7 year old doesn't have a mobile.

She really has no need for one

DD is nearly 10 and the standard around here is 11th birthday or end of Yr 6. No way on earth I would have bought her one age 7... She's only just getting mature enough to self regulate.

No! My eldest got phones in year 6 and 5 and youngest is 6 and just got an iPad (no sim)

Also my 11 year old has no social media, just WhatsApp for friends.

13 year old has Snapchat and tiktok heavily monitored, i won't let her have Instagram.

No way! Why would a 7 year old need a phone?
It make me really sad seeing young children at the park sitting looking at their phones rather than playing.

Nope - but she has her own iPad which she could use to facetime her grandparents if she needed to. She wants one, and apparently "absolutely everyone in her class has one" - which translates out of DD speak into one friend having her mum's old one to play games on with the sim card taken out.

I can't for the life of me imagine why a 7 year old would need a phone. My Dd (now an adult) had her first mobile phone at the age of 16,in 2000,when they were still a relatively new 'thing'. By contrast,HER own Dd was one month away from 12 and just starting secondary school when she had her first one. I think that's probably about the right age,when they are becoming more independent and going to and from school without a parent.

I was astounded a few weeks ago when I read a newspaper article about tablets and iPads and their effect on young children. There were parents saying that they'd given children as young as TWO their own iPad! And then they wonder why the child doesn't want to do anything but play on the iPad all the time,and have tantrums when you try to curtail the amount of time they spend on it.

God no. Secondary school only.

I thought the same as the original poster and think the research is inaccurate mother of mine or any of their friends had a mobile phone at seven. Neither do any of my nieces and nephews (all in different areas of the country) if it was fifty percent surely I would have come across one with a phone that young but I never have. Youngest child I have know to have one is in year five and year six is definitely the norm (usually as an eleventh birthday present to get them ready for secondary)

No, none of them will have a phone at age 7. Our eldest got his for his 11th birthday, the others will get theirs for their 11th birthdays.

I plan to get my children a phone when they're old enough to go out without parents, so probably about 10 or 11. My daughter is 7 and I don't think any of her friends have phones that make phone calls - some have their parents' old phones that they play games on.

My 9 year old doesn't have a mobile phone.

Mine both got them in the summer before starting year 7 , secondary school, because that's when you let them in the big world alone catching buses etc and there's no longer phkne boxes on every corner like there was in my day