I can clearly remember driving in my car in the 1990’s on the way to collect my children from school, the news reporter on the radio said that by the year 2010 more school age children would have mobile phones than wrist watches; what a load of rubbish I thought to myself, why would school children need mobile phones? ( how wrong can a person be!).
My son’s had phones when they were teenagers, mostly given as presents for birthdays or Christmas. We had a rule;no phones at the table when we were eating together.
They had pay-as-you-go contracts which they paid for themselves from pocket money or money earned from Saturday jobs or money given for birthdays and Christmas.
I remember my step-son saying that he wanted a contract phone so he wouldn’t have to keep topping up his credit. He seemed to be permanently on his phone and we used to joke that he would need an operation to have it surgically removed from his ear!
His dad told him that he would have to wait until he was 18 to get a contract phone, he went into a phone shop on his own and asked for one, the problem was when he was asked his date of birth: he was never great at maths so he couldn’t work out the year which would make him the 18 years he was pretending to be ( he was actually 13 or 14) the year he told the assistant made him only 12 so the contract phone was refused. He eventually managed to run up a pay-as-you-go bill for hundreds of pounds over just a few months, we made him pay it off so much a month and he learnt his lesson by this mistake.
Mobile phones for children in my opinion are great for emergencies, although most children will use them for playing games or going on social media such as Facebook
My grandson came to stay with us for a weekend when he was about 4,he kept asking when my eldest son would be home because he wanted to play games on his phone.
In my experience when you want to get hold of a child on their phone, they don’t answer because they have forgotten to charge the battery and the phone has died, or the phone has been left at home.
My 10 year old granddaughter has just received her first phone for her birthday, my son has used the google family link as a way of monitoring how she is using her phone: who she is talking to, what she is watching on it and if she is on the phone when she should be going to sleep he can even turn it off.
The day after her birthday she managed to lose it; it fell out of her pocket when she was riding her bike. She was very upset on discovering it was missing, her dad had put a tracking device on the phone available on the google family link- this meant that he was able to track the phone to the house of a lady who had picked it up from the pavement.
When I was a child minder I would put old mobile phones in my dressing-up box for the children to play with. One little girl placed the phone in a handbag and told me, ” Hold on a minute, Karen, my handbag is ringing!” She then had a long conversation with ‘the caller’ great for developing imagination and communication skills.
The news reader was correct, more school age children do have mobile phones than wrist watches: they look at their phones when asked the time, which makes me wander if they could tell the time from a standard clock face, rather than the digital reading.
Mobile phones can be a problem if they are taken to school, there is a risk of them being stolen, lost or taken away by the teacher, children could also be bullied for not having the best phone.
Some people worry about the risk of being exposed to radiation from using a mobile phone
If your child is becoming obsessed with their mobile phone my earlier post on addicted to electronics my be worth reading here .
So are mobile phones good or bad for children?I would love to hear what others think .
As always questions/ comments are welcome.
Until next time.
Karen x
In this age mobile phones seem to be a must for everyone ,children as well as adults , as you mention you used to let children play with your old phones and so many children like to use mum or dads phone to watch kiddie programmes. Phones used properly are an asset and can be so useful. Another interesting topic Karen .
I don’t see the necessity of mobile phones for younger children. There is so much peer pressure already. I really don’t approve of them in school for elementary school age children, and I believe they should be limited even for older children.
Great article! I think a lot has to do with discipline – not just by children but by parents also. How can children learn to leave the mobile behind if the parents are constantly glued to it? I think we all need to be able to digitally detox from time to time and no harm if children grow up without being dependent on technology for everything….
Totally on the same wave length regarding mobile phones. Great post! #GlobalBlogging
I think this debate will rattle on a long time. My kids all had phones when they went to secondary school, however I think that is now outdated (my youngest take GCSE’s next year) life moves on too fast! #GlobalBlogging
This is a topic me and Hubby discuss and can never find a solution. It is worrying the amount of attention kids give their phones these days. Thanks for sharing this with us at #TriumphantTales
daddy confession : I may or may not have lost my cool and loudly told my 8 year old that ‘she’s not getting a f’ing phone” in the middle of Wal Mart last week. I’m sure she will have one much earlier than I ever would have guessed, but not yet #anythinggoes
I go back and forth on how I feel about children and phones. My daughter is 6 and has already asked when she can have one. My nephew is 9 and has a better mobile phone than I do! I think they serve a great purpose in this day and time but like everything they need to be moderated. I also think that there are safety concerns with getting a child the latest and greatest phone on the market. #ALittleBitOfEverything
I think cell phone addiction has become a widespread problem for adults as well as children, and I wish everyone would get a grip! We were on holiday at the seaside, and there was a beautiful path right along the water and beautiful views all around. And half the people on the path were walking along texting! C’mon, people. Stop all this constant inane texting and talking, and start LIVING! Sorry for the rant.
It’s a very emotive subject. Mobile phones are a fantastic resource but I wouldn’t want my 6 year old Daughter having one for a few years yet. I’ve no idea when the right time is but I like the fact she takes an interest in all sorts of things and I’m worried giving her a phone will make her a slave to the device like so much of us are these days.
I am very anti it. I hold out until high school for my kids, and in the first year they get a dumb phone. My youngest, phoneless, already has all the Instagram lingo and poses in a photos, even without the phone. She laments to her friends with phones that she won’t be getting an iphone either. So it infiltrates regardless….good post #Triumphanttales
And #Stayclassymama
Aspen got her phone almost a year ago on her 14th birthday, it was my old phone but still in good condition. That was much later than her friends, in fact many of my younger childrens friends have phones. Aspen was really good about waiting though and has been very responsible with it. I can see the point of having a phone for children when they walk to school or are out with friends and we need to get in touch to organise where to meet up, but most of the time I don’t feel they need to be glued to it. It is hard as obviously I didn’t grow up with the tech my children have so I am trying to figure out the right balance. #StayClassyMama
Great points here! As my kids get older, I could see wanting them to have a phone for emergency purposes. But you are right, the kids see it as a game device. #outdoorsymommy
My son is 2 and I dislike him using my phone. I have a lego train app and a letter app for him but he doesn’t use them much. I’m not sure when he’ll get his own phone. Thanks so much for linking up at #KCACOLS. Hope you come back again next time.
I am against mobile phones for young children, the disadvantages outweigh the advantages at that age. It can be a highly addictive habit, and very hard to control their use. It also means less time for activities that help their development, like imaginative play, doing physical activity and playing with manipulable toys and materials. Google Family Link sounds like a good idea, though. #kcacols
Now they’ve wrist watches that ARE mobile phones!!! lol Great article #kidsandkreativity
Yes there are, thank you x
My eldest has said he wants a mobile phone: he’s only 8! He wants it to play games even though he already has a tablet. Thanks for linking up with #globalblogging
My eldest isn’t yet 5 so I’m a few years away from all of this. Really interesting post and comments! I’ve got it all to come #KidsandKreativity
I’m definitely in the camp of people who will NOT be following the trend of 7 year olds with mobile phones – they are more dangerous than people give them credit for and absolutely not needed by primary school age children! When you children start walking themselves home from school or going out on their own is when they need a mobile! I forever hate the fact that my stepdaughter has one and has had one courtesy of her mum since the age of 5!!! Though in fairness now it makes contacting her far easier for her dad and I haha #KCACOLS
I think my children will be allowed a phone at secondary school when they are hopefully a little more responsible… Thanks for linking up with #stayclassymama
I think that as with most things in life, it’s a question of balance. Of getting enough green time as well as screen time. I haven’t taken the time to learn about the Google Family tools you mention here, they seem really useful, so thank you for sharing about that! X #KidsandKreativity
I don’t think 7 year olds need mobile phones. I think that is way too young. I will admit that sometimes I let my son play with our old phones, that still work for GAMES, if we are connected to WiFi, but it doesn’t make or receive calls and it is not something he has all the time. It is more of a privilege. #KCACOLS
I think they have their place, but in my opinion kids shouldn’t need a phone when at school. Personally I don’t want my children to be exposed to the pressures of social media until ethey are much older! Interesting post, thatnks for sharing at #KidsandKreativity
What great information. Phones are difficult – our 10 yo has one mostly so he can contact us if he needs to and we can track him but he’s autistic so i don’t know how it would be if he wasn’t. Even so he mostly plays games on it. Thanks for linking to #kcacols
This is a strong debate. I struggle with this debate within myself let alone against someone else. My boys have cell phones, and in my experience it’s been a blessing and a curse all in one! #kcacols
I’ve told mine they can have their own phones when they start going to school by themselves, which I think will be around 12 #KCACOLS
Popping back again from #outdoorsymommy