Mumsnet encouraging phone use for 6 year olds - out of touch

[SpringHasSprungTheGrassIsRiz]

"A six and nine year old have been using the Other Phone – here’s how it’s held up" WHY is mumsnet actively pushing phone usage for primary aged children? This article includes comments like the 9 year old watching "a lot of YouTube" and pushing phone usage for a 6 year old. I am quite honestly shocked and yes, I am clutching pearls.

Do better mumsnet.

Yes I thought the same, absolutely bizarre. 6 year olds should not have phones obviously.

I thought this too. Just shows revenue is more important than good advice and common sense!

I completely understand where you're coming from, and in retrospect maybe we should have asked just the nine year old to test it rather than the six year old.
In an ideal world no child would have a smartphone at six but the reality is (according to Ofcom's figures) nearly a quarter of 5-7 year olds have one.

In which case the Other Phone is a much better, more controlled and safer alternative.

It has device-level parental controls and radical whitelisting, so you can lock it to Wikipedia or only the apps you approve. You can set it up as a brick at first, with only tracking and the ability to call home, and then open features gradually as your child grows. Those safeguards travel with the device when you add a SIM. It also comes with a warranty, managed updates and customer support, so parents are not left patching an old handset.

We've been actively campaigning for stricter controls through Rage Against the Screen campaign. While the government catches up, and the absence of other solutions from the big phone manufacturers, this is about offering a safer interim option for families who are already navigating these incredibly tricky issues.

Thanks so much for the input.

I’m right there with you on this. We waited as long as possible to give Mia a phone, and even now we use screen time management tools to lock down everything except calls and a couple of educational apps. No social media, no YouTube, no games unless it’s the weekend. It’s not easy—she begs for more all the time—and I know we’re stricter than a lot of parents. But I’d rather be too strict now than deal with the fallout later. It’s just not worth the risk at that age.

A nine year old with a smartphone is also absurd. Hopefully these bullshit devices will all fail - the safety elements are overblown and encourage parents to think it's something their young kids need. It's like encouraging children to vape rather than smoke it makes me really furious.

My son is about to start secondary and his school specifically bans these along with all smartphones. They're allowed a brick phone with no connectivity at that's it.

We've been actively campaigning for stricter controls through Rage Against the Screen campaign. While the government catches up, and the absence of other solutions from the big phone manufacturers, this is about offering a safer interim option for families who are already navigating these incredibly tricky issues

This is incredibly disingenuous - what "problem" is this company trying to solve? Nokia have solutions to needing a phone with no social media and they cost about £15 then £4 a month. These pretend smart phones are such a scam and are still wiring the kids brains to be looking at a little screen all day.

I'm dubious about the quarter of 5-7 year old figures. I teach Y3 in the sort of area where children have free reign over their tech and have only ever taught one or two 7-8 year olds with a phone. Don't know a single KS1 child in my personal life with a phone either.

Agreed. There was nobody with a phone in my son's class until year 5 and then a handful had brick phones. I suspect it's bullshit and may include kids who've played on someone else's phone or something else equally sneaky.

Also nobody (or no organisation, meaning Mumsnet) who actually thought that ideally no children would have smartphones would agree to advertise one for 6 year olds! You can't have it both ways you either give a shit or you don't.

I think Mumsnet has this one really wrong, I'm seeing huge support for smartphone free childhoods and certainly round me the schools are increasingly banning them.