Daughter has bought her 7 year old a phone

[Alisonjayne8]

It's a phone that's capable of social media with all the bells and whistles.

I am fuming about it but what can I do. I watched a documentary about Snapchat and tik tok and what gets shown to new users, it scares the life out of me.

It's not what we did but firstly it's none of your business, secondly you don't know what kind of controls will be put on them.

What was the point of it then?

What couldn't they have got from a shared family tablet, for example?

But there's no reason for her to have had a smartphone...

So weird

Why do 7 year olds need to fucking message each other???

I’d be concerned too. It’s far too young and yes potentially very dangerous. My eldest didn’t get a phone until the summer before year 7 and at 13 he still doesn’t have social media - no snap chat, tik tok, insta, facebook etc. other dc is 10 and doesn’t have a phone. She’ll get it when she goes to high school.

Yanbu. She’s a bad mother. A really bad mother. She has opened her child up to all sorts. But the mother who gives her phone at 7 isn’t one that you could reason with in any case

Well they don't need to but there's lots of things kids don't need to do. It's nice for them 🤷

Why couldn’t she use your phone or the adult who was with her at that age. Because surely at 7yo your child would be with an adult around?

Agree

As I said she wanted to message her brother so I felt that was a good enough reason.

Besides which I have 2 adults and 2 teens as well as 2 younger dc and I have pretty much used the same tactics around tech with them all, none have screen/phone addictions, or social media at all, so I reckon I'm doing something right.

So you can get stuffed with your sanctimonious "so weird....." rubbish.

Not a good idea. Kids grow up too fast these days

YANBU your daughter is an absolute idiot.

Nothing you can do. Not your decision.

its your daughter’s decision and her responsibility to set parental limits
and to teach her child to navigate phone use safely.

It's how I choose to do things.

They have their own tech, under my guidance and I teach them how to use it responsibly and appropriately from a younger age, rather than give them a phone as a teen and let them crack on with it. Tech is an ongoing education in this house.

I'm very happy with how I do things and its worked out well for me 🤷🏽‍♀️

More parents are becoming more aware of the harms being done to children by giving them phones and tablets.
Obviously a lot of parents don’t know or care about how children’s brains develop and grow.

Awful parenting but nothing you can do unfortunately

Ok but she doesn't need a smartphone to do that, non-smart phones are available.

Feels like people have no idea how dangerous this can be for little children, both in terms of them having access to things they shouldn't, and how deliberately addictive phones can be. Just be really careful if you want them to be able to read a book ever again.

Not every one is as careful as you though are they?

I doubt you do all this to be fair. She doesn’t need one. You’ve chosen to give her one because you think it’s nice. I’m all
for bans on under 16s for social media. Therefore I think you’ve made a terrible, irresponsible choice.

Doesn't make it right though. Or age appropriate. Or particularly safe.

And safeguarding is everyone's responsibility. The OP is right to be concerned.

Cheers for the unsolicited advice, I'm very happy with how I'm doing things, thanks.

lots of hysteria already and only 45 posts on the thread so far.

🤣

Half the toddlers round here have their own iPad at 2/3 years old so I’m not surprised. Seems stupid to me.

OK, I was talking about myself so.....

OP might not have any control over the parenting of the child but to say the welfare of her grandchild is non of her business is ridiculous.
Of course she is concerned about the welfare of her own grandchild.
And she has every reason to be worried by this inexplicable parenting decision.