To be shocked that 97% of 12 years olds have smart phones?

[Rhayader]

My DCs school does not allow smartphones and most of the schools around here are the same. The kids all have Nokias (and often an AirTag or similar for tracking).

I can’t believe it’s 97%! Am I totally out of touch? She’s never even asked for a phone.

https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/2024/sep/23/children-who-dont-have-smartphones

the reason we bought a smartphone was because of getting the bus by herself in year 7, the bus app, google maps and samsung tracking tags. I've not allowed Whatsapp and shut it down except for approved family apps etc. I did think long and hard but in the end if she gets lost, or on the wrong bus, or the bus is late she can see at a glance how to get home or when the next bus is coming without needing to phone home. I can also track her location. If there were a way of doing these things without a smart phone I would welcome it and use it.

My kids both got one in the last term of primary school in preparation for going to secondary. They get two buses which takes over an hour and my eldest got lost walking from the bus stop to school on her first day. Luckily she was able to phone us and we could see where she was and direct her to school using Google maps. I’ve got four kids and we are always rushing around dropping one kid up and picking another up - the smart phones capabilities make my life so much easier. They also have Rooster cards which are controlled via an app on all our phones so I can monitor their spending. They WhatsApp throughout the day - done well in a test - send me a pic of their test paper - done badly - send me a message saying how sad they are. Of course I didn’t have all this when I was a kid but I personally, feel closer and more involved with my kids because we are all messaging each other throughout the day. My younger daughter has one friend with a brick phone. He often gets missed out of social engagements because none of them know how to ‘text’ and none of them will make a phone call so if they want him to join in with things I have to WhatsApp his mum.

I do monitor my kids usage pretty closely but they aren’t actually on their phones that much in the evenings. I think the novelty has worn off.

I thought as a society we were waking up to the dangers of giving children smartphones (I follow the Screen Free childhood campaign and have signed their pact) but reading this thread makes me think we clearly are not!

Smartphones are not appropriate for children. It is shocking that schools are forcing children to have smartphones in order to access homework, and bus companies only allowing e-tickets. You can put whatever software you want in your child’s phone to try to minimise risks but there will still be significant risks and they will work around it.

Oh get real.

My kids school homework is a smartphone app. Their teachers post last minute timetable or room changes on there. They have e bus passes they have to scan, their school meal payment app is on there. They use it to take photos, use bus timetables, book cinema tickets, book into their youth clubs, they use it for homework, they are sometimes encouraged to use learning apps in classroom on their phones.

Does that make me a bad parent?

I have a 12 and 13 year old. It's unusual for any kid not to have a smart phone where we are.

Smart phones are fine if you actually set up the restrictions. No child has to have Facebook or Instagram on their phones. You can set it to only pre approved numbers etc you can set timers for it to turn off or go “dumb” you can track it.

Smart phones are only bad when parents cnba to sort them out.

Ok not surprised.
Only on mn is there so much phone-phobia. In RL most secondary children have one. Posters link to studies about how addictive they are. No doubt. I myself love mine! But most teens, in fact 12 year olds starting year 7 have one.

There are 28 kids in my Y5, and 30 in Y6.
I know that only 1 child in Y6 doesn't have a phone, and I think it's about 5 in Y5 (and I bet that will change after Xmas).

I keep their phones during the day. They are all smart phones, not a Nokia among them (and I'd say at least 10 of these phones are better/newer than mine, so unlikely to be hand me downs!). We are in a seriously deprived area, and it blows my mind.

I absolutely hate it, and spend hours every week dealing with SM issues that get brought into school.

I’m not surprised once they are in high school it’s handy for them to have a phone. They travel independently. Homework is given out/ submitted on glow, which is the school version of microsoft teams/ sharepoint. It’d actually be really difficult without access online as there updates during the day. Music teacher is off ill don’t attend your lesson type stuff. The school bus has been delayed please report to reception etc. They tell each other but it works as majority have a phone.

I have 2;in secondary school and I'm shocked you know kids that age who have a Nokia. I don't know a single child without a smartphone.

Actually in our school homework is set through an app on their phones and their timetables and everything are on their phones.

I don’t find the AirTag reliable. It needs to be near an iPhone with Bluetooth on. Mostly my ds is untrackable between school and home. Fine now at 11 in primary school but next year at 12 he’ll get my old iPhone with parental controls and tracking switched on and App Store switched off. I want him to have the maps app in case he ever gets on the wrong bus.

for safety reasons. I live in a not so nice area & my son during the first half of year 7 was a target for some boys from school and on more than one occasion he was too scared to completely get his phone out to ring me. So he would pull it out & send me just a random letter & I knew he needed me to come to him. So his tracker allowed me to do just that. Not to mention if he is out and somehow gets lost which I did a lot at 14, I am able to find him and tell him how to either get home or collect him. I also if he is away on a residential like to know he’s got there safely ect as they can not always send us a text right away.

if you’re not tracking your kids in this day and age then I think you’re far too laid back. I come from a very rough area and wouldn’t dream of allowing any of my children to step out of the house alone without it.

I guess it depends what you consider a child. My two were both very grown up and sensible when they got their phones. We had a lot of very frank and open conversations around all sorts of elements of internet safety, grooming, bullying, fraud etc. My daughter left the class WhatsApp chat because she thought it was a toxic environment and both of them have flagged up things that they have come across that they are uncomfortable with.

Genuine question - when do you expose your kids to this? You can’t keep them offline forever. It’s like handing them the keys to a car at 17 and expecting them to be able to drive. I’d rather that my kids have learned to navigate the digital world whilst they are young enough to accept my supervision.

I don’t see the harm in tracking either. I was late to collect DD from her sports club this evening because of traffic and diversions. I obviously couldn’t answer the phone when driving, but DD was able to track me and see I was about 10mins away.

Hardly surprising when so much of their school work is internet based, i.e. homework apps, timetables, VLEs, needing the internet for homework, needing the internet for research during lessons, needing the internet to access online text books and other online resources, pupils encouraged to take snapshots of the white board or to video science experiments in lessons, emails between teachers and pupils, etc. Schools are driving the need for pupils to have smartphones!

Where do you live where no child even asks for a phone - Silicon Valley!

My son has gone into year 7 and all his peers have smart phones. As previous posters have said they are walking to and from school independently, going to after school clubs etc so it's security and helps with tracking. Although the school are strict about usage during the school day and notifications being turned off etc they do use them as part of learning. Teachers will ask students to take photos of whiteboards for example, or to store their timetables on. In some lessons kids have asked to use their phones to research facts. Their inductions were very heavily weighted towards the dangers of social media and recommendations for limiting WhatsApp chats. There's been a lot of education around how bullying can thrive on phone chats. So the school are taking an active role in teaching kids how to use phones sensibly and safely which I think is pretty valuable.

Wow, I think bad parenting is going to the extreme! So you're basically saying that 97% of the population who have a 12 year old with a smartphone is a bad parent! Just because they have a smartphone and not a brick doesn't mean they spend their life on it. My son is barely on his, but does use an ipad which has all the same features of a smartphone, ie; websites, apps etc because he has to use it for school. So what's the difference!?!🤔

What do you mean by VERY VERY religious?

Bible readings/prayers twice a day in tutor time, compulsory worship (singing), religious entry requirements for most of the kids (a small number of places for other faiths and scholars), compulsory RE GCSE for all children, scripture on the walls & in their homework diary, parents prayer meetings etc

Yes, I mean parents are hyper aware of the Smartphone dangers because it has been the hot topic for a year or so, it isn't due to their superior parenting. I have a late teen and he had a smartphone at 12 with restrictions but he still had one, he's happy, grade A, very sociable student. I'm afraid all societies ills can't be blamed on the smart phone. I work in the area of Privacy and info sec and there are moral question marks over this surveillance technology but no one bats an eyelid at airtags it seems. Surveillance of young people and by that I mean the huge amounts of data made about a child in a school and the third parties they share it with does appear to be as problematic. In fact, I'm not sure it's great for the mental health of your average tween and teen to be monitored, rated (performance data) and have no privacy.

I wouldn't be surprised if 97% of year 7s at my son's school have smartphones as the school has everything from lunch money to timetables to homework on an app.
They're not supposed to have phones on during the day but also often seem to be asked to use them in class.