Rules for mobile phones

[stridesy]

Planning on getting my ten year old a phone for next year for high school. Was just wondering what rules other parents had in place as don’t want her on the phone talking to her friend all day! We’ve already had an incident on her iPad with a friend who decided on a play date with another child to send her a video saying that she hated her so obviously will need to monitor it anyway.

Limited time both overall and the individual ones on certain apps blocked overnight, no social media apps, not alowd in room at night (has to be plugged in downstairs. We also did a family phones agreement when we gave dds them (age 11 where we wrote down the general rules like not aloud at dinner table, no being mean to people etc and signed it.. that has worked the one even minor transgression on it phone was confiscated for a day not happened again she is 13 now

I’ve said this before on mumsnet, many times. My kids had iphones from 11 ish I think. They are all fully functional adults, doing well at uni. If I had my time again they’d have had a Nokia until they were at least 14. Maybe older. I think 10 is way too young, and yes I had all the parental controls. Absolutely no social media until 16.

How did your child receive the video on the iPad?

You need to check your intended secondary school policy as thankfully many schools are either mobile phone free or brick phones only.
DD is 12 and has ThePhone+ and an Asda £4 a month no data SIM so can only call or SMS and it was the best decision as she has avoided all the nastiness/drama on social media/whatsapp. She just uses it to text if she’s staying at the park on the way home or to meet friends.

it’s a really common misconception that having a smartphone makes them safer.

Buy one that isn't a smart phone - just an old fashioned thing that can make calls and send texts, only.

Honestly just make it boring we got our oldest a phone 2 weeks before he started high school this year he was very excited about it but after realizing its purely to call or text us if/when needed he realized it was quite boring, so it literally lies in his school bag or he’ll put it in the kitchen on a Friday to be charged at some point over the weekend, none of my 4 kids have ipads or access to social media, youtube, messaging or the internet with the exception for learning/homework which is still supervised.