Mobile phone poll

[madhamsters]

Hi - I'm quite resistant about getting my kids mobile phones. They are year 6 & year 7....they both have monitored iPads at home but I hate the idea that they will have free reign to use phones at their secondaries....I already know that kids use them to text/surf in lessons where they are/are going to secondary. My friends are very surprised that my two don't already have phones - What do you do? What age and why do they have them....I drop and collect my two so not transport required. I am thinking maybe when they are 13 or 14 above the age of most social media restrictions.

My DS is 9, he has an old handset which he uses the same way other kids would use tablets etc - there's no sim card in it so he can only use it for gaming/youtube etc. at home via wifi.

I plan on getting him a simcard for it at age 11 when he will be a bit more independant and would prefer he can contact me if needs be

Most UK kids have phones now at 11. Most schools won’t let children use mobiles in lessons - what’s the school policy?

You drop and collect your children from secondary and won’t let them have phones? You need to loosen the control. Why aren’t they waking to school?

Am with you on the phones thing. My DS is year 7 and doesn't have one (and neither do I). He does have a Switch and tablet for use at home - both of which are monitored. The phone thing I'm thinking can last for some time yet. Possibly year 9 or 10.

y8. Has PAYG smart phone but no data/internet access.

Has a few games added by Bluetooth.

That said, most of her y6 primary class had smart phones.

Both, year 6 and year 9 have phone although they have child accounts so can’t download apps without is authorising it. The High School is fairly strict. If they are caught using their phone it gets confiscated and the parents can pick it up at the end of the week, I totally ageee with this btw

Luckily our secondary ban use in school. But its useful for contacting us if they need to on way there or way home, having a bit of a social media presence to keep in the loop with friends, they access their school website and homework on their smartphones sometimes rather than crank up the laptop, play music, do Duolingo (language learning) or Usician (learning ukelele/guitar). And spend too much time on You tube :) but generally they have a balance. And it goes on charge outside their room at night.

DC school often has them (purposefully for education) using phones during lessons. They can also use phone inbetween lessons & at breaktime. I think on the whole this means fewer rather than more problems with phones.

Youngest DC will get one for Xmas or his birthday in yr6.

This is becoming a bit of an issue in our house.
Ds , 11, has use of a cheap Nokia for when he really needs to have a phone.
But, at any time out of school he's scheming for my phone or dh's.

He has put games on both our phones and, despite the fact that we say our phone is our territory, please ask if you can use it, the pull is so strong that he often helps himself and still won't take the telling off seriously.

99%of the kids in his class have fancy phones with Bluetooth stuff going on. He's livid he hasn't got all that.

Bit he has form for losing stuff or leaving things lying around to be taken. Also not heeding warnings about asking before taking means there's no way he's getting any fancy phone anytime soon.

I need to play hard ball here, sadly. I'd love him to have a phone and be responsible with it, but it's just not happening yet.

DD1, starting yr7 in September, has a smart mini 7 and is on 3 PAYG at £5/month. It is only for phoning/texting and needs most of its memory to run itself so no games.

Her school now and her sr school in Sept do not allow pupils to use them so it is mainly for her to contact me or her dad. In anticipation of going to big school, of her friends have a phone of some sort - many are hand-me-downs from parents so nice phones (iPhone 5 seems to be average) but not brand new. She has swapped numbers with some of her friends and they text each other a bit.

At the independent school where I teach, pupils are allowed their phones at break/lunchtimes. Sometimes, I see them hunched over a device or gathered round as they look at something together but this does not dominate - they also interact in the usual ways. As mentioned up-thread, they can be asked to use them for academic purposes in lessons but this will change in Sept since all pupils will have a school issued iPad.

My dts are 10 and one has an old iPhone 5 with no SIM that she can play games on. The other one is not interested and claims she doesn't want one until she's 17 as she doesn't want to get addicted. Ha ha ha! Long may that last !

In reality, I expect they will both get one with a SIM during the latter part of Year 6. I had hoped to hold off to the summer hols between primary and secondary but their birthday falls in January so the phone one wants one then, we shall see!

I have just spent a while reading about an app called 'Safetonet' which looks perfect for kids young enough to be compliant about it! I am strongly considering installing it on their phones at the very beginning of their phone 'career'. When they are open and amenable to listening to me! I fear I've left it too late for 14 year old dd who would not want any interference on her phone at all now

Google it and see what you think. Let us know.

My y6 has just got a smart phone. It's a second hand Blackberry with a payg sim with free texts. She's had email on a tablet for a while.