8 year olds and phones

[WonkeyDonkey99]

DD who is 8 and in class 3 in juniors has tonight told me that the girls in her class (she is not “in” with this crowd. Lots of pushy girls as opposed to my quite little girly), have all got mobile phones and are texting and snap chatting.
This is so young isn’t it?! Or am I being a total dinosaur? DD seems to want one to maybe find a way in with this crowd.
I really don’t want her to be “in” with this vapid crowd.

My DD is 8 & also Yr3. Non of the kids in her year have phones. Tbh we're hoping to hold out as long as possible, probably Yr5 or 6.

One of them has a phone in year five and a couple in year six. Certainly not the norm here.

Awful, but yes I think some do start in juniors, more like y4 usually the first ones start? More by 5 & 6. I want to hold out til secondary but if all dd's friends have phones it will be very hard. Hate it!

Utterly ridiculous
A few at our school had them towards end of y5 but now they're all in y6 only a handful of them don't have them. Bane of my bloody life since ds had his the poor school are constantly getting dragged in to issues of bullying

I think the whole thing is insane! Glad im not the only one. DS’s have one but not until all were in class 6.
and the bullying thing scares me too. how can they regulate it? Do parents even know what their kids are up to????

My 8yo yr 3 doesn't have one and hasn't mentioned others having one either. My yr 6 child got one at Xmas, as did lots of others in their class. As PP said, it's been a nightmare and lots of issues that the school are having to deal with. I'd hold off as long as possible!

In my experience, no lots don't. We have rules and time limits on DS phone, but I know he has deleted things still to avoid us seeing, so I won't pretend we know everything going on either. A surprising amount of kids are allowed them over night/parents don't check etc

The children that have them have probably had them passed down by older siblings. Avoid it aslong as possible.

DD had a dumb phone for emergencies at that age for when we were out and about and more likely to be separated/ as a house phone or when she was at swimming galas etc. She might have said she had a phone at school but really she only had my and my parents numbers in it.

its more like year 4 here. Ds is in year 5 and there are only about 4 kids in his class without a phone, ds being one of them. He won’t be getting a phone until the summer before year 7. He really doesn’t need one before then and there are always kids falling out online then parents and school get involved and it all becomes a massive stress, so we’re trying to avoid that for as long as possible. Fortunately, ds plays a lot of sport so sees his friends a lot and doesn’t seem particularly bothered about a phone.

Dd is Y4 and she has one, plus a couple of her friends but the majority of the class don't. She goes to the park with an older friend who is a neighbour (just at the end of our street but out of view of our house) so I like her to be able to contact me and vice versa. She barely bothers with it otherwise and prefers to watch YouTube on her iPad. Absolutely no texting or Snapchat! Her and two other friends communicate via Skype and that's it.

DS is 8 but Yr4.
I know a couple of the girls seemed to have phones in year 3 but it could have been to do the fact these girls also had older siblings (easily passing down their old phones?)
Now in Yr 4 I am getting more moaning off DS that 'everyone has a phone' but upon further interrogation discussion it sounds like 1/4 of the class, if that, and it hasn't stopped his friendships.
He will be getting one perhaps towards the end of year 6, as we'd like him to 'learn' a little instead of going into high school totally naive.

In our years 6 most kids do but mine doesn’t. Grasping on to this for every month I can. He’s actually not that bothered either, he’s never begged for one

Mine is year 4. still doesn't have a phone.
I'm sure there are lots of children in her year who don't have a phone but I am always surprised at how many children I know who do (and did as well in year 3).
I don't believe they have Snapchat but some certainly have WhatsApp.
I'm still happy mine doesn't have one yet and it's the right thing for us

My DSD was given a phone my her mum when she was just turned 7. Including access to Snapchat, WhatsApp and Instagram etc. Insanity.

My DD in Y4 doesn't have a phone and won't until secondary school. Four girls have phones. They cannot behave themselves on Roblox chat let alone on WhatsApp. Some even have TikTok. The parents will never learn and when it goes seriously wrong they will blame everyone but themselves.

I have an 8yo in Yr 4 and there are a couple of kids with a phone but it's not the norm. From what I can gather yr6 seems to be when they pretty much all get them for 11th birthdays in advance of moving to secondary and having to walk themselves to school.

Lots of kids had them in year 3 in my child's class, don't know if it was to do with covid and keeping in touch but he is now in year 5 and we got him one for Xmas, he was one of the last ones to get one. My other child is in year 4 and I don't think anyone has a phone in his class.

I have an 8yo in yr4. In yr3, only 2 DCs in the class had a phone. This year, many are starting to get them in readiness for middle school in September. We are in a village, so the DCs will need to get a bus to their new school (an hr each way, winding through various villages) and being able to track them or them being able to call if there is a problem is worth the hassle it will cause. DD is summer-born, so will get one for her birthday. It is much sooner than I'd like TBH, and its use will be heavily restricted.

Not around here.

When mine was in year 6 most had a phone by the summer term and were bullying each other merrily for several months on class WA groups. Dc was not allowed to use WA until spring term in Y7 and I never allowed dc to join the primary school WA group as it was below the best rude and full of attention unsupervised too big for their boots seeking youngsters. Y3 or 4 is irresponsible and unnecessary.

Phones ready for them to start secondary school here.

I think half off my dd class also year3 have phones, dd was invited to a soft play party and all her friends had phones attached to their hands doing tick tocks and taking pouting selfies my dd went off and played with children she didn't know. No chance my dd is getting one. People want their children to grow up far to quickly nowadays.

My child is like this too!
Maybe there is a correlation...