What age would you get your child a smart phone?

[Allofaflutter]

If they don’t go anywhere by themselves? Would you wait until high school or earlier? Just wondering what people have done. My kids are adults now but I have been asked for my opinion by a friend on when they should let their child have a smart phone. It just got me wondering what people do these days. My kids had very non smart phones at high school only but that was normal then. What have you decided?

My 9 year old does not have one and won't until secondary school. When she starts secondary school, she'll be taking the bus so she'll have one for maps and bus app. But we will ensure that there are parental controls on the browser so we can see what websites she's accessing. Definitely no social media.

DD1 was 11, a few months into her final Yr at Primary. She didnt go out by herself until then.

DD2 was 9, she played out with friends on the estate at this age and I wanted to be able to contact her.

End of summer between year 5 and 6 for eldest. It’s given him some freedom, helped him keep in touch with friends and football team mates. It’s allows him some more independence. Easy to put various limits on it and control usage.

My DC are teens and they each got a basic smart phone in year 6

DS is 14 and has recently got Snapchat, other than that he uses no social media.
DD is 17 and uses Instagram, and tik tok and, to her disgust, fb because that was a way of connecting with others at her prospective uni!

Get them a dumb phone if absolutely necessary. Smartphone maybe at 13.

Definitely not a 'need' before that age....maybe a basic one that just does calls and messages for safety for some kids (eg: young carers) but not most.
And certainly not a smart phone.

Personally I hope to wait till 13 or 14. Brick phone for early secondary. There is a growing movement that way in our area so I’m hoping she won’t be the only one.

But I know there are kids in our primary who got a smartphone at 8 with unrestricted access to TikTok. Which is awful parenting imo.

Mine had them at 11 for secondary school
as they were more likely to be walking rather than dropped off. They didn’t really need a phone before this

Just because your friends kid has one doesn't mean you have to copy.

I have no intention of giving DS8 one for as long as is possible.

That's awful, your poor daughter having to pretend and lie out of embarrassment. And then having a basic function phone in this day and age, leaving her out of social life that everyone else shares and probably a target for bullying.
You think you're doing her a favour but what you are doing is not healthy or good, it's extreme. You could have just made sure her use of phone was balanced via parental control, the occasional checks, no phone at bedtime etc.

Not before 14 and possibly even longer. They have access to devices at home and their usage supported and mentored to be able to make safe choices.

They have dumb phones for the school bus.

Mine were 10.

This falls into overbearing mother territory.

You think you're doing her a favour but what you are doing is not healthy or good, it's extreme

Totally disagree. All of the science backs up the fact that smartphones can be extremely damaging for young minds. As a PP has said, there's a reason why the Silicon Valley tech bros won't let their kids have smartphones. Read the GenZ Reddit forums - it's really common for them to say they wish they hadn't been exposed to social media or porn etc at such a young age.

I also think most parents are extremely naive about what kids are seeing on their phones. It's fairly trivial to get around the various child lock settings, especially for a young person familiar with tech. My parents have no idea about some of the extremely disturbing (and outright dangerous) things I saw and did as a teenager online.

Later part of year 5, with an old and very locked down phone - very limited apps, no communication from anyone not on a white list, a need to request an approval for pretty much everything, time restrictions, etc.

Before getting hold of the phone, DD first had to read an age appropriate book about online safety and was then quizzed on it by me and DH. The phone was then initially only allowed at home, until the excitement wore off.

The phone is in preparation for being allowed to walk home alone from school. Assuming the phone is treated sensibly and carefully, then it'll be upgraded to something slightly better (but no-where near top of the range, and still tightly controlled) before high school.

Giving an 8 year old a smart phone is lazy, crap parenting.

There's currently a drive on where parents are banding together to propose a school ban on smartphones. These are the same parents willing to ban it at home. A few schools in our are on board. It is the work of the devil.

In the Guardian today- UK ministers considering banning sale of smartphones to under-16s

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/apr/10/uk-ministers-considering-banning-sale-of-smartphones-to-under-16s?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

The rule here is 12th birthday

Age 12, year 7 at absolute earliest. My dd (age 11) walks home from school and doesn’t need a phone to do this, we live in a safe area, it’s a ten minute walk and I work at home. She is one of only a few in the class without a phone but I am holding out. It’s not affected her social life or her safety. She’s sad to see how many friends are now glued to their phones even as they walk to school and enter the playground, like little addicted zombies. Smart phones are stealing childhoods.

Secondary school. He had a dumb phone from year 4 as that was when he started cycling to school and back on his own. It was just so he could call in case he got a puncture or something.

I also think it’s important kids learn to deal with situations that might happen eg when walking to and from school alone - without needing to phone their parents. Many times that phone call isn’t going to help much anyway. Eg comments from older boys (learn how to either walk away safely or stand up for yourself), forgetting something (go back for it), a bike puncture (wheel it to your destination on foot), a detour to a mates house after school (call your parents from the house to let them know you’ll be late home). Smart phones give a false sense of security and may even prevent kids learning to be streetwise - on top of all the harms and risks they already carry in terms of internet access and screen addiction.

@TheValueOfEverything Personally if my 8yo is going to be late home from school I would like to know. Without him having a mobile phone I would have had to do what my mother would have done - waited 15 minutes and then set out to find him. Now he is in secondary he has a smartphone so I can see where he is anyway, but even in juniors it was useful that he could call me on his brick phone if he had a problem or delay.

That’s interesting about the government thinking of a ban.

Love to see them police that 😂