To get my 11yo a mobile phone?

[Locomom]

We haven’t yet felt the need to get our 11 year old daughter a mobile. She is autistic and has ADHD but is very high functioning and has a good friend network of girls who all have phones.
if my daughter wants to use my phone, she can use it freely to WhatsApp friends or browse SHEIN etc, this way I can keep track of what she’s talking about with friends, and can ensure there’s no creeps in her chat.
speaking last week to my mum friends at her primary school leavers disco, I mentioned that she didn’t have a phone, and it was like the room fell silent and I was looked at like I had 10 heads, because she doesn’t have a phone.
i keep thinking that I didn't have a phone when I was 11, and what parent would risk their child having access to such bad stuff online?
also we’d worry about her losing a phone so I guess what I’m asking is, am I silly for not just getting her one or am I not alone with this??

Just get her a phone that texts and calls but has no internet access, OP. Smartphone Free Childhood recommend no smartphones before 14, and have some good resources.

Well with the social media ban coming in just get her a brick phone for calls and texts like PP suggests. When DD started secondary school it was a 45 minute bus ride away so the old phone of mine that she had (heavily restricted) I had to add data to as opposed to previous WiFi at home so I could track her going in and coming home. She was horrendously bullied through year 7 & 8 due to that bloody phone WhatsApp being used by awful girls in her year to torment her telling her to kill herself daily. She didn’t tell me for almost a year. There’s a new ban for phone free schools. But it can’t really be fully regulated. She is 14 and autistic with a PDA profile so reacts like a very much younger child when trying to establish home/school boundaries. We can only make and enforce the best choices for our kids as far as we can. I wish they had a better world to grow up in most of all.

Also, to point out, from what I’ve read so far WhatsApp won’t be restricted for teens. And that was where the abuse started.

You are not alone. I agree with pp, look up SFC and get her a brick phone. Why people are rushing to give the world access to their children via smartphones, is hard for me to understand. Just look at how our phones affect us.

Can you get a brick phone that’s touch screen, just thinking, trying to teach old skool texting might be challenging for her