What phone does your year 6/7 child have?

[Elfie23]

As above really.
I've said DD can have a phone in year 6 for safety as we want her to start getting used to walking on her own (plan is to start with her walking to the car outside the school just out the gate and down the road for about 1-2 minutes and then build up to further distances) in preparation for secondary school.

What type of phone do your children have? I'm definitely not looking at anything top of the range, I've had a look with my provider and can see an IPhone 11 for £20 a month. Just need something half decent so I can use find my iPhone or similar to see where she is, and for her to be able to use it in an emergency if needed so something with decent battery life?

Good job we are talking about a phone for a 10/11 year old then.....

We just bought an old refurbished iPhone for around £100, then going forward have passed down our iPhones as we tend to upgrade every 2-3 years.

You don't actually need to know where your 11-year-old is at all times. Presumably your parents didn't have that information on you and you turned out OK! Most probably you didn't have a mobile at all.

We are a Nokia household, their smartphones are fantastic, more robust than an iPhone, come in great colours if relevant and my battery life lasts almost a week even with regular use. Knowing they can't compete with Apple and Samsung they've also cornered the sustainability market which I really like. There is no noticeable difference in the usability to me between my work iPhone and my personal phone

I paid £149 out right with an ID mobile SIM card that's £4.50 a month.

If you give an expensive phone or one on contract it puts a lot of pressure on the child, some might call it responsibility but having seen many children in tears after accidently smashing their screen giving them £1000+ phone would be the last thing I did.

Hmm yes, but it's slightly different for a lot of us now. My mum or an adult was always at home, whereas we both work FT so DS has to let himself in to the house. We had a landline at home however we don't so without a mobile I couldn't check in on him.

I agree regarding smartphones generally though. It's absolute Pandora's box.

In answer to your question OP, we gave DS a second hand iPhone 8 with a £5 SIM card.
Apple allow you to set up parental controls using your Apple ID. We locked down pretty much everything, including access to Safari.
We found however, that school were asking them to use their smartphones in lessons to research, carry out quizzes etc so we ended up letting him have the internet. Still not happy about it though!

my eldest is yr 7. Big regret giving him a smartphone

he is constantly invited onto numerous WhatsApp groups and the content has been shocking at times. nearly a year on we are still having to tell him when to stop & take a break or put it down at night. Some of his friends have zero restrictions so he gets whatsapp’d all through the night. They don’t need it for school if they have another device at home

dc2 is getting a nokia

I'm currently having the same dilemma for my year 6 son. He's cycling to school and back, a fair way, comes home to an empty house, and doesn't currently have one, he does need some kind of a phone. We don't have any old ones as tend to run ours into the ground/break them then get a new one! On Which, the Samsung A14 is well reviewed as a budget smart phone which lasts well. Currently £100 ish outright on Amazon. I'm reluctant to get him a brand new one but even second hand you're looking at £80, so then it seems to make sense to get new with a new battery! We will be locking it right down, no socials, WhatsApp, and passworded access to get any other apps etc.

Presumably your parents didn't have that information on you and you turned out OK!

This is a weird argument to make. There are lots of things available now that weren't back then that make childhood easier, happier, or safer etc, should I shun them all because I turned out alright? Times change, if my mum could have tracked me when I was 11 she absolutely would have done.

Y7 when Out and about (mainly going to and from school) basic non smart Nokia plus an AirTag so we can see location.

At home can spend a small amount of time at sensible hours on an old iPhone that has no sim. Mainly so can contact friends not at their school. But I absolutely agree WhatsApp groups are a massive pain and caused huge angst for class and teachers in y6 with constant allegations of bullying, very late night messages etc. Online access to school systems via a Chromebook.

If you are going to hand over a smartphone set the rules up front on time, that you can read messages and they are not private, what they can use for and what they can’t.

My dd has my old iPhone - she did have an 11 which broke so she happily using iPhone 7! They all do the same thing - don't they with a iPhone!

Just to add that DS needs a smartphone due to having to show a QR code that changes every day for this school bus.

They have reconditioned iPhones. Not the latest models.
They have both proved to take very good care of them. Never been lost or broken yet.

That's not always true.

It was far cheaper to get my sons phone on contact than to pay for the phone & sim only contact.

Mine were travelling to school independently on public transport from year 6 so they had a non smart phone for emergencies. Then in year 7 a cheap refurbished Samsung and a sim only contract. I don't track them. I do set family link up on their phones so they can't download any apps without my permission.

That's really discriminatory. What happens when parents can't afford a smartphone?

I'm not sure @Rainrainrainrainrainrainrain, maybe the school would be able to help out in those cases.

ah my bad! i thought it read age 6/7 lol...yes my kids got a basic phone when going to high school, they didn't get 'smart phones' until there were nearing year 11 and even then they were 2nd hand on a pay as you go contract

Really old iPhone with all apps removed except calls (to me and dh only) and ordinary texts. Camera and photo messaging disabled. App Store removed. No browser or internet connectivity. Find my is enabled

And I was glad as was ds that he didn't have WhatsApp as the Y6 WhatsApp groups caused endless problems involving the school safeguarding team and I believe even the police at one point. Absolutely nothing to be gained from all that at an age where they can't possibly be expected to have a peer group that can behave respectfully online

Y6, Nokia old style brick. No camera, text and phone only.

Smart phones have never been recommended for children under 16.

We’re getting DS a very basic Nokia soon. He’s in year 5 and wanting to be more independent.

Thanks everyone, lots of advice there to take in!

I've already said she will absolutely not be having apps like TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook etc - there has been an incident with Whataspp at school however I'm not 100% on the details just that all the parents of the children in this chat were contacted about what happened and then all year 5/6 children were called to an assembly about online safety etc.

Sounds like the Nokia's are a popular choice or an older iphone, I'm not looking to spend a lot on a phone so will check out the few websites mentioned and shop around - a friend has also mentioned ID Mobile too like someone on here - thanks all!

No they didn't know where I was to the point of grid references but they knew I was with friend X and we'd be somewhere between her house and mine for example.

I was 11 in 1998 so things were a lot different back then, I'd love nothing more than for DD to go out after school with her friends like I did without me worrying with no mobile phone and to just come back in time for dinner - the world don't seem to work like that anymore though!

Honestly i dont think brand matters that much...iphone samsung etc. My advice get the same brand as you have so you can easily work them and can share chargers etc. Older model etc all fine but easier to be the same.