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.

What’s the point then? If that’s all she uses it for surely it makes sense it’s on your phone?

This post is about a parent letting her dd have a smartphone and the assumption is she’s using it unsupervised. You’re ok with that? Or are you just making a bizarre point because you feel judged?

FYI I totally judge anyone who lets their young child have a smartphone. There is no defence. It’s stupid.

I supervise all of her screen time anyway, regardless of whether it's my phone or hers or the TV.

To be fair she would have more of a chance of a random message popping up on my phone than hers. She literally has my number and the numbers of her siblings in it.

Replies like this are so ridiculous. While it may be the parent’s decision it isn’t unreasonable for a loving grandparent to be worried about the consequence for their grandchild. You saying ‘ it’s none of your business’ isn’t going to stop the grandparent being concerned for the welfare of their grandchild.

I attended a talk by a psychologist who said that when parents ask him what age is okay for a child to get a phone he answers 'when you (the parent) are okay with your child seeing porn'.

I 100% agree with you, OP - no 7 year old needs a phone, and they are very damaging.
Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do.

Exactly, the assumption, with absolutely no basis whatsoever.

You're asking me what the point is, I'm asking you what's the difference between supervised access to my phone for a limited period of time a day, and supervised access to her phone for a limited time per day?

Honestly couldn't give less of a fuck if people judge me. Was just giving another perspective.

YANBU. Not your place but you’re not wrong to be fuming. A 7 year old doesn’t need a brick phone, let alone a smart phone.

Wow, she's a moron. You need to take it away.

YABU

it only sounds "dangerous" for lazy parents who believe parenting mean leaving your children unsupervised to occupy themselves and learn to be bored.

For parents who actually parent, smartphone are a great tool, and in 2026 nearly, it's not too early for children to learn how to use them

Why do you assume the parents will let her have a tik tok account and be without supervision?

Lazy parents are projecting, that's all

Don’t be ridiculous. The grandparent
cant remove the phone purchased by the parent.

they can be concerned the same way people can be as offended as they like. They are entitled to any feeling they want. It's just doesn't matter.

Absolutely this. There is so much information and data now available about the serious harm to young children to have a smartphone (internet enabled and social media). This is your grandchild and of course you are right to have an opinion and influence where you can. It takes a village.

It’s not another perspective. Your situation is not even close to the ops point.
You have gone out of your way to say how different it is in fact.

The difference is she doesn’t own a smart phone. She’s using her mums to message her siblings. That’s normal. A little girl with a smartphone is a very sad idea. Not my kid though so…

Music
Google Classroom
Games
Camera

Its not much different to a kid having a tablet. But its the usual MN OMG its a phone

The ops point is that her grandchild has a smartphone that could potentially have social media downloaded into it.

My point is that not everyone who allows their child to have a smartphone would allow that, and they can be supervised and restricted on it.

The op is judging the phone without knowing anything else about the plans for it.

Most posters seem to think parents who's kids have smartphones are unsupervised etc, so I am offering a different perspective.

Op is angry with no reason at the moment.

A mobile phone without a SIM card and controls on which apps are there is just a small tablet. My first got an old phone because I couldn't get the MP3s any more. Now they have Spotify. The phone doesn't have messaging or email or web browsing or social media apps or make any calls apart from 999. It's not the phone that is the problem.

Yes. This is the bottom line. When my child asks me when she will get a phone I say “when you understand the depths of human depravity”. She doesn’t quite understand what that means yet so I’ll wait till she’s older to elaborate (and even older still to have a smartphone). As she is almost secondary school age, I see the advantage of her having a non-smartphone - she is now occasionally not with me and not at school or a club so it will be handy to be able to contact her. Soon, not just yet.

People who buy their kids smartphones and use them like shared communal devices, well I don’t have much of an issue with that but I also don’t see it as a 7yo having their own smartphone. People who just give their 7yo a smartphone are 99% of the time fucking dumb. The only exception I can see on this thread is where there is a custody arrangement with a parent who has substance abuse (or similar) issues. Totally understand that, but perhaps a non-smartphone might be suitable and less risky.

"... that I know of."

And I sincerely hope you're right. But we know that unscrupulous people exploit children, knowing the children may be too ashamed to say anything.

This - any child with a phone connected to the internet has the ability to access porn and other material they shouldn’t.

You may not be able to do anything about it, but I would still voice my opinion and tell her how disappointed I am that she has brought it for her something that she should not be having until she at least goes to secondary school, has she never heard of on line bullying and weirdos and I would tell her so.

Excactly if it was 1985 and a 7 year old got a 'walkman' or a camera or a gameboy nobody would bat an eyelid.

It would be thats nice dear, look after it.
Instead its a crazy OMG phones are the work of the devil!

It’s definitely not the choice I would make but it’s not crack cocaine - and it’s not your child to decide what happens with them. Leave this to the parents.

With luck she will lose it, or a 'friend' will find out she has it and pinch it, and that should be the end of it until she is older.

My mum would have a word with me if I gave my daughter a phone at that age.

My DDs classmates have phones, WhatsApp group fall outs have already happened with inappropriate things being shared in the group sadly…

Your naivety or ignorance is actually outstanding.