Aibu to ask if you bought your child a dumbphone

[Jjiillkkf]

Aibu to ask if you bought your child a dumb phone instead of a smartphone and how that went. Also, shamlessly - I'm looking for recommendations, are there any quality ones out there or are they all quite flimsy?

How old is the child? I went straight for a smartphone but my DC didn't get them until secondary so a dumb phone didn't make sense.

You can disable safari / app downloads on iphones if you want them to have access to Uber / Google Maps

Yes.

Nokia brick.

They got a smartphone eventually but the dumb phone was useful for phone calls (they cycled to school together from year 5).

Watching for recommendations!

No way is my DC getting unfettered access to the internet when I'm not around.

I bought my child a smartphone, but it's locked down. There are no social media apps on it. He uses it in exactly the same way he would a tablet computer and a dumb phone, except they're the same device.

Our school only allows two models so we had to pick one of those. We went for the Nokia.

Yes, dumbphone (basic bombproof Nokia) aged 10 when they started going out alone.
No smartphone til 14.

Just buy a smartphone but effectively turn it into a dumbphone by using one of the apps like family link to disable a lot of the stuff. That way, you can ensure they still have access to any homework or study apps a secondary school might expect them to use, but you can block social media apps, youtube, the browser etc. You can set it up so that they can only really use it to call and send messages, and then have access to a few carefully chosen apps like school related ones. You can also really heavily restrict the screen time they can have on it.
Im sure people will claim their child managed to hack their way out of the app restrictions, but all the 11yr olds i know have this stuff set on their phone by parents now and none have yet tried to get round it, because its the norm as they all are restricted.
Even if in a year or 2 they start trying to get round the restrictions at least then they are just that bit older. I honestly think the longer that you can manage to stop them getting completely screen and social media/short content obsessed, the better.

This is my plan. I already have family link to control their tablets and they have shown no interest in trying to circumvent any of the controls. I'll also look into getting one of these SIM cards https://parentshield.co.uk/ which gives you a load more options to restrict / monitor use.

Original plan was to go dumb phone but I think a smartphone will be more useful for secondary (planning to get a phone at end of year 6) and will hopefully be less obvious to casual observers that she's got something different and therefore be a bit less chance of bullying.

Nokia flip phone for my son who just started Y7. He can call and text and it has a few very simple games. It's going fine, and because texting is a pain with the old ten digit keypad, he and his old primary friends at different schools ring each other for chats rather than text. So much better than them being on what's app.

He is also tending to start his homework on the train home because he doesn't have a phone distracting him. School makes them lock all phones in pouches on arrival anyway so he wouldn't use it at school.

Downside, however, is that he can't check the train app to see if his trains to/from school are delayed, and he doesn't have phone banking so needs to remember his debit card, and to check the balance of his account we have to log onto the bank's website on a computer. Some of the school's tech also requires two factor authentication if his tablet is used off site which also isn't easy without a smart phone.

I think you’re missing the point. Sensible parents are now buying dumb phones instead of smart phones. This isn’t about giving phones to primary age kids. Smartphones are not suitable for children.

Gdd1, 9, has been given an old Nokia, since she’s now Y5 and (delighted to be!) allowed to walk to and from school on her own.

Same

No we bought her a smartphone at start of year 7 but put parental controls on it so she didn't have unlimited access to the internet, she needed adult permission to download apps and it was locked overnight.

She needs a smartphone really for the apps school use for homework and communication and for things like live travel updates and tickets for the bus home.

She also uses WhatsApp a lot to message friends

How can you describe non smart phones as flimsy? You can drop them etc because there's no delicate screen to smash. Just get a Nokia. However multiple GD (age 9 has a smart phone) . I don't support the banning of smart phones by schools.

Sorry, to clarify, we had parental controls on for the first few years but it meant that they could use various homework apps etc

We bought the Nokia 5710 as we liked that it had an MP3 player and my DC likes audiobooks and music at the gym. It was one the school recommended when they moved to restrict smartphones to over 14. DC is 12.

I’d get us all a dumb phone if only you could have WhatsApp on it, without it nobody in our family would contact each other!!!

DD (11) has an iPhone but it is locked down. She cannot download any apps without my permission. I can restrict screen time and add limits for particular apps as well. I think the parental controls from Apple are really useful.

She has no social media but does have WhatsApp. Her friendship group uses this to have group video calls. I think this is sweet.

She did get added to some Y7 group chats and I look at these - she knows I do. There’s been some bullying on those already but this has not involved her. However, I’m shocked to see some kids still chatting away after 10pm. DD’s phone gets locked at 7pm at the moment. She is not allowed to have it in her room at night. Some of the parents don’t seem to know or care what their kids are doing.

Following with interest
I want to put off getting my child any kind of addictive tech for as long as humanly possible

Planning on getting a dumbfone for Y6 DS.

He's also very unlikely to get mugged for it and it will be less expensive to replace when it (no doubt) gets lost somewhere.

Our teens are only allowed dumb phones until they go to 6th form college. We just got basic phones from Tesco, which suit them well.

Excellent idea. They featured it on TV the other day.
Children were still able to message and call friends but they weren't addicted to the phone.
You saw them enjoying themselves playing more and getting outdoors.

I would check with the school. They have lots of apps they need to use for homework at my DD's school and also use their smartphones in lessons sometimes.

The longest that's possible is forever (I mean, until they're adults, whereupon they can choose for themselves and pay for it themselves). You don't have to cave to peer pressure or the dc whining or whatever. You have a free choice - don't let anyone tell you different. You don't have to get them any phone at all - not even a dumbphone. You're in charge.