Do most 11-16 year olds really have an iPhone?

[SDRyan]

I wasn't too sure which section this was best for, although this one does meet the age range.

DSD (12) keeps asking for an iPhone and banging on about everyone except one or two people (or sometimes ten, it seems to keep changing) people in her class have an iPhone and that almost everyone in the school has one. So, it's left my curious how common it actually is? I tried looking for UK stats, but kept on finding US ones, or stats for adults. I have a feeling it's not very common and just one of those arguments kids try to use, but I could be wrong.

[exexpat]

Buying a teenager a brand-new latest-model iPhone on contract could be seen as spoiling her, but passing down an old one when you are upgrading is very normal.

[Hulababy]

You don't spoil (the that word anyway) just by giving them things; it's all about attitude behaviour and expectations.

[ElephantsNeverForgive]

Here it would be daft for me to upgrade to a 5s and give DD1 my 4s as it is her who wants the finger print lock, more memory and the better camera (art). I'm quute happy as I am.

When my contract expires, I might see if I can convince DH to have a decent phone.

Sadly DD1's Ace is playing up.

[ElephantsNeverForgive]

I'm nit happy with this Kindle's spell checker

[chocoluvva]

DD got an I-phone 4 with the combined Christmas money from us and her GPs. The charger breaks about once a month and it needs charging about every six hours. Not worth the money IMO.

[Groovee]

My 14 year old has her dad's old one and my 11 year old just got my old one.

Ds had a samsung galaxy fame and a y! Dd had one og the blackberry ones.

[BucktoothedGirlinLuxembourg]

Mine does, but only as a result of an adult in the family changing their handset and handing it down to DD. She was not bought a new iPhone. Rough guess, 70% of her class have iPhones, again mostly older models handed down after upgrades. She is yr8.

[Dumpylump]

Dsds (13 and 16) both have 5c iPhones, and from what I've seen of their friends, most of them do too. I don't think I've seen a single one that doesn't have a cracked/broken screen though!

[Hulababy]

Have to say that all my chargers still work and have never broken. - had iPads, iPhones, iTouch and iPads and all charges are in working order.
Not have been smashed or cracked either.

I have had two issues over the years with my i-phones.

1. Stopped working after an upgrade. Took it into the apple shop who gave me a free exchange same day.
2. I put it in the washing machine, ivv by accident. It didn't work. I took it to the apple show and got a no quibble out of warranty upgrade for £140 that day.

Like all smartphones they need charging every day. I use mine a lot and charge it every night. Excessive use may need it a bit more but I've never really had to and neither has dd. Dh's Samsung needs charging far more than either iPhone.

Dd has had her phone for about 1.5 years and it looks as good as new.

Maybe we are just lucky???

[tipsycat]

Dd(12) has 5s on contract for her birthday, ds(13) has 5 also on contract. Roughly 50% in their school.

[aubreye]

DC go to a prep school and the kids there, aged 10 (I know, what the hell) have iPhones. It's rather funny actually as 12/17 of them have phones and DS has an HTC and claims that about nine of the children have iPhones. The thing is, I genuinely think he's telling the truth!

[3stripesandout]

DD 9, DS 7, DD 4 all have iPhones . DD 4 also has an iPad.

You can thank their Disney dad, aka my ex husband.

[LatteLoverLovesLattes]

3stripes would you like to adopt me for a little bit? Please :)

It is no fun to have a Disney Dad ex, still, rest assured, the kids know who really loves them and is always there for them, they're not stupid.

[Whyjustwhyagain]

We gave DD age 13, my iPhone 4 for her birthday as I got an upgrade a couple of weeks earlier.
She's not the only one in her friendship group with an iPhone, but she is in the minority.

[MumwithTeens43]

My two Eldest have Iphones my Eldest is 18 at college so we pay the bill as long as he keeps to his part of the agreement which is room kept (semi !) tidy , help clean up dishes after dinner and keep out of trouble and rather than the mistake he made at school which was as little as he could , learn , try and as long as he did the best work he could that was all anybody could ask!
My Daughter age 14yrs , oh where do I start except Ahhhh!!! She until recently had an iPhone( many probs staying with gparents at the mo and phone was not going as well ??) even after saying no lock or we needed the pass code she got more secretive , she was given an iPad ( not by us !) so she had more access to the net unsupervised and with FaceTime until we found out she was on at 2/3am with friends and my experience of raising teens means around this age all hell breaks loose and because she couldn't have her own way on a serious matter I found she was going to disappear with her actually very sweet boyfriend and only because she'd left her ipod downstairs so I saw the google map flash up .All apple products link up so her ipod,phone and iPad give her complete access even when we set boundaries ! Losing battle , wish I'd made her keep her htc, at least you knew how many minutes and internet was on a laptop downstairs I regret ever giving it to her. Please someone learn from the mistakes I made

[JellicleMoon]

My two older children have had iPhone's since they were 13. Their father bought them and they are on his plan. All of their friend's have iPhones. Some have bought the phones on their own, most have been gifted by their parents.

[differentnameforthis]

God, do 11yr olds really need an iphone/smartphone.

My dd doesn't have one, neither do her friends.

[Hulababy]

Well technically no one actually needs a smartphone so they?

But many children at secondary so want and have smartphones. Every one of dd's friends have a form of smartphone.

It is handy only needing one item to so everything - phone, camera, music, email etc

[Groovee]

No one needs a smart phone but both my children have had hand me downs. Well apart from the sainsbury's trial last year when ds got a galaxy fame from them.

[bronya]

I know eight 11-16 year olds. Only one of them has an iphone and it's a 4s.

[Travelledtheworld]

My two aged 14 and almost 16 don't have mobile phones at all.
But they rarely go anywhere so they just don't need them.
We just have a spare PAYG phone they borrow if they are going out somewhere far from home.

They have an iPod each which they use to message their friends.
The older one is planning to save up for her own phone when she gets a Saturday job, after half term.

[ElephantsNeverForgive]

Don't you find school just expects everyone to have a mobile?

Our secondary arranges and cancels sports things at a drop of a hat and frequently changes pick up times or drama rehearsals.

They just expect everyone to be able to ring home and get a lift.

(Or for a very lucky few say they'll be on the later bus. Public transport isn't this areas forte)

[morethanpotatoprints]

My dd is only 10 but she won't be bought one, she can buy her own when she is 16.
Being able to contact us is important so we buy her a brick, it is also part of my fight against access to internet porn.
I think you should do what you want to do not feel bullied into it by peer pressure. There were about half the class with phones like this when our older dc were at school, but I kept saying no, they soon stopped asking.

[ElephantsNeverForgive]

Yes they stop asking because they are surfing the web on their best friends phone on the bus and sending FB messages when they go to tea.

[ElephantsNeverForgive]

As to breakages, we have the odd temperamental charging lead, one completely smashed ipod, mine. DD2 knocked from my hand doing ballet skips. Hardly Apples fault, no phone, without an armered case would have survived, it flew up the pavement. It actually still worked, despite the state of the screen.

One ipod, DD1's dying from 5 years continuous use for at least two hours a day (long dull school bus ride) plus many hours ibook reading at night.

Compared with my LG phone that was always horrible to use and thats touch screen died in about 3-4 years and DD1's Ace which has just stopoed making calls unless you rip its battery out, befire it's contract ran out, the apple stuff is pretty good.