What mobile phones do 11 year olds have?

[thebluehen]

Dp wants to get dd an iPhone when she goes to secondary school in September.

Is this the norm now?

[Joyy]

My son had a bb bold from eBay

[EveryThingIsImpossible]

Hi,

My DS has a Galaxy S4 on a 4G EE contract, of which he pays me for the use from bday money. Unltd mins unltd texts 2gb data
Seems to last

[caringdad66]

my son has an apple i pad, but with hindsight i wish i had gone for something cheaper.
Its on contract for 2 years, but i reckon my 11 yr old wont look after it for that long, and will either lose it or break it.
I,m afraid i gave into his pressure, and am now regretting it.
Get a smartphone,by all means,but get a cheap one.

[Hulababy]

As for DD accessing the internet....

Well firstly my DD has been accessing the internet for many years before having a phone, and even if she didn't have a phone, I would be a very naive person if I thought that would stop my child seeing stuff online - to start with, all their friends have them where she could see it.

I very much believe in education rather than trying to bar access. I have taught my DD about online safety for several years and she is very sensible regarding this. She has even planned and taught lessons to younger children for a week on this very topic - she really does know what it is all about.

And even more importantly she knows what to do if things go wrong online. But this goes for everything - online and offline. I can't protect her from everything but I can do my best to prepare her with education and knowledge of how to minimise some risks and what to do if anything every goes wrong.

We have rules about Instagram - what type of images are acceptable, who she can be friends with (she must actually know them in real life), etc.

And I check her phone. She knows I do and that it is part of the agreement of her having a phone/tablet. I have all her passwords and our photo stream is linked, so I actually see every photo she takes. I don't do it daily and she is often there when I do it anyway. As I have said, she's had the phone 17 months and I still do it every so often.

[Hulababy]

DD's official school rules re mobiles is that they must be turned off during lesson times. They can be used at break and lunch time. Officially if they go off in lessons then they can be confiscated.

However, this is fairly inconsistent as some teachers let them use them in class to record work they are doing (photos/video), as a quick research (google), calculator or similar.

[Hulababy]

It varies hugely at DD's school, though almost all do have a smartphone of some form. Even those who started with a basic phone have all, in DD's friendship groups anyway, have now got smartphones. Things like Instagram are huge amongst this age, within a few short weeks even those not using things like it were doing so. The make and model of phone they all have varies though.

DD does have an iPhone - bought as a birthday present but in prep for starting secondary. She is careful with her stuff and had a good record for being responsible for not loosing and breaking things. She's had it 17 months now and it still looks as new, yet used daily.

[exexpat]

Actually, I have just checked and all angcas972's posts on MN are about the 1stfone, so I assume it is advertising and will be reporting all of them.

[exexpat]

angcas972 The 1stfone thing looks like it is designed for early primary school children (not sure why they would need a phone, but never mind). Please don't get it for your sister.

My 11-year-old and her friends would not be seen dead with something that looked like that. A very basic Samsung Galaxy (with internet access blocked if you want) or even an old-fashioned nokia brick would be miles better than that.

(I'm assuming that you genuinely are thinking of buying it, rather than making a rather unsubtle attempt to advertise it, as your post does read rather like that)

[Notexactlymarthastewart]

DD 11 has a Galaxy Ace and just £11/m coming to end of its contract.

Before that, at 8 she got her first (PAYG) phone, £7.50 from Argos!

[aubreye]

DS1 is 9 (10 in September) but is going into year 6. He says all if his friends have phones and could he please get one. I agreed as he'll be walking home now (20 minutes) and I've said when he gets one he can just text me or dad to ask if he can stay at a friends. Maybe when he starts secondary school, I'll see what the other children have before deciding whether he should get an iPhone of not. At the moment I'll just give him a cheapish, HTC or something. I know my niece and nephew both have iPhones but then again they are 17 and 18.

[19lottie82]

I've also checked their social media site and they look great for my 11 year old sister who is starting secondary school soon

//www.thebrickcastle.com/2013/07/1stfone-phone-designed-for-children.html

With the greatest respect, kids are very fickle, and I think if a child was spotted with this, the bullies would have a field day.

[JulesJules]

DD (12yo) has the cheapest Galaxy smart phone which we bought for her on a payg contract £8.50 a month. This is quite new, before that she had a non smart phone with top ups.

All her friends seem to have something similar, no iphones as far as I know.

She needs to have a phone so we can keep in touch when she's out with her friends or needs meeting, or after school activities overrun etc etc.

[19lottie82]

my dss (10) has an iphone 4s, which was bought for her last Christmas (second hand). personally I think she is too young, but it's my DH's decision, not mine, and a LOT (not all) of her friends have iphones too. I was a bit shocked as to how many tbh.

[Stickerrocks]

Nokia Lumia is the cheap smartphone of choice around here. DD had a cheap PAYG basic phone last summer which she only left somewhere once, but it was so basic that nobody stole it. She's just bought the Nokia herself, having been given the choice of getting it herself now or waiting until Christmas. She doesn't have a FB account, so no worries there. She only texts a few people, because she knows how much credit she's allowed to have.

[Cuppachaplz]

DS (currently) yr6, has the cheapest android PAYG I could lay my hands on. I got it mainly do he can let me know if he is outside my building after he walks there from school, needs collecting etc. however, He always forgets it and it never has any charge. Hoping this will change at high school next year.
However I see no point whatsoever in a better phone. Most of his friends gave cheapies, some cheap smartphones, some bricks.

[cece]

My 11 year old had a really cheap phone with no internet and no phone on payg. She had to show me she could look after it for a year before I let her have a more expensive one.

[JamJimJam]

My (just) 12 yr old has an iPhone, it's my old 4S one though.

All of his mates seem to have iPhones or other smart phones.

I don't particularly approve, but neither do I want to set him apart from his friends.

[AChickenCalledKorma]

La Mamita - in what possible way is a child with a tablet and a walkie talkie morally superior to one with a cheap smartphone? It's just a phone, you know, not crack cocaine.

For the record, DD1 has a phone and is managing quite well to continue living life, develop deep relationships, have her own opinions and enjoy the great outdoors. And occasionally she texts me just to say hello while I'm at work. Which I like.

[mumOFsix6]

My 11yo ds (in year 6) got a Samsung Galaxy Ace for his 11th, it was £55 from Carphone Warehouse. He's had it six months and there have been no problems

[ChazsBrilliantAttitude]

La Mamita

DS1 is 10 and travels home from school on public transport. He needs to be able to get in touch with us if there is a problem. e.g. there was a car crash that blocked his usual bus route home so he rang DH who was able to come and pick him up.

Just because they have a phone doesn't mean they spend their time totally focussed on it. We have time limits on screen time in our house as do an awful lot of parents.

[LaMamita]

Just wondering if the world your 11 year old will be entering by having a cell phone is something that has been pondered super carefully. That is a "yes" that will be crazy hard to take back.

Besides, you take so much away from a child when they have a phone...

• you will watch "over" phone use just for some time and then forget about it... until "something " happens (bullying, innapropriate conversations, grades start to be affected for lack of concentration, behavioral changes etc.)
• the time they spend on the phone they can't spend doing other things they should be doing at this age and can't be done later in life (like developing deep relationships with few people - siblings, parents, a couple close friends) to be introduced to the world of superficial, irrelevant, short-cut relationships
• time to discover him or herself without having opinions of people that will not be in their lives in the long run but will affect what they think of themselves
• time to live, experience and suck in the here and now of their actual lives

I have an 11 year old and of course he has asked for a phone. I ask: what for? He says: for texting?, I ask: whom?, He says: my friends, I say: here's my phone, call them if you want to. If he doesn't get a hold of them I plan a play date asap. He needs then to wait to see them (that not the end of the world, is it)... Ok, he says. Or he says, but I want to play: I say: go get your tablet and imagine is smaller. He has a walkie talkie to let me know when he is outside X place and I have to pick him up... he beeps, I am there. No cell phone here... anytime soon.

[Journeytolight]

My 11yo doesnt have a phone but when she asks for one, i'll probably get her my old Nokia. Her friends 'all' have iPhones but thats just a little bit too young.

[Redglitter]

Oh she also has an app Life30 which is a 'tracking' app on it