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?

[Bunbaker]

"The latest phone will make them a " mugger magnet""

It depends where you live. I used to think that and sent DD to high school with a basic PAYG Nokia. Everyone else had "mugger magenta" phones and she got fed up with being teased about her phone.

Once she made new friends she was getting through her credit ridiculously quickly and it was cheaper to get her a contract phone instead. She had a Huawei phone that looked like a Blackberry and that was fine.

[mum2030]

All kids at DS school have smartphones as they are allowed to use them during breaktimes but not during lessons. Before he lost it DS had quite a nice handset which we bought him for Xmas. He had managed to get through a whole year prior to this without losing his cheap phone which was a condition of getting a better handset.

It was on PAYG and he hardly used any credit at all basically because he wasn't allowed to use it for data apart from by connecting to our home internet. He rarely did texting or phoning as mainly used it to keep in touch with friends on Intsagram & Kik etc. It cost me less than £10 over 4 months.

He now has a 9.99 Nokia while he is saving up to replace the lost handset.

[dingdongdoodlebug]

First was a cheap rubbish thingy which is still knocking around in a drawer for emergencies

Now an Iphone 5s (better phone than mine!!) but I only pay £10 a month towards it, he pays the rest. Waste of money IMO but he really wanted it. Told him if he loses it its gone and still have to pay contract

Did I mention he loses everything.........

[ChazsBrilliantAttitude]

DS1 is 10 but comes home from school on his own now. I got him a Vodafone smart mini phone. Cost 30 in the sale usually around 50.

I've turned off mobile data so he can only access the internet on the wifi at home.

[pixiwoo3]

When my DD turned 11 she got a Samsung Galaxy Ace
She then got a family friends old iPhone 4 as most girls at high school have iPhones.
It stopped working properly so we bought her an iPhone 5S for her 12th birthday!

[Redglitter]

My 11 year old niece has a Samsung Galaxy Y ~ which is I believe geared at that age group. It's on a Tesco contract of £10 a month and allows her to get apps etc which are strictly monitored.

My SIL gets a text from Tesco when My niece is approaching any of her limits

[Redglitter]

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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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]

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.

[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.

[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!

[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)

[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.

[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.