Grasshopper Green

My son is 8 and desperately wants his own cellphone; several of his schoolmates have phones and I'm pretty sure that's where his desire comes from. Hubby and I have told him he can get one when he's older and has more independence and freedom. I suppose if he was a latchkey kid I might want him to have one, but we also have a landline so that solves that problem. I just don't see the need for him to have one at his age, not to mention the potential problems that come along with it.

When did your kids get their first phones?

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Formerly Medusa

Leto

Grade 9 - (14 years old) as soon as they started taking the subway to high school. Note: when I hardware upgrade my phone, it comes with a SIM card, I put that new card into my old phone and purchase a $10 pay as you go voucher to load it up. This becomes my kid's phone. They get $10/month to play with, if they need more, they need to pay for it from their own cash. Minutes roll over, so they can accumulate easily.

So far I have done this twice, my third son is in grade 8, so he is awaiting grade 9 to get his phone. My outlay at $10 per month will be only $30 for all three to have phones.

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SecretMethod70

8?! No way. I don't have kids, so I can't speak from experience, but there's really no reason why a kid could need a cell phone before their teenage years.

8??? That's ridiculous.

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amonkie

I was 16 before I was allowed my first phone, and then it was shared minutes with my parents so it was extremely restricted. If I wanted more, I had to get my own plan and pay for it myself. I did that when I turned 17 and I've had my own cell phone plan since then.

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Hotmnkyluv

My youngest daughter was the first of my kids to get one when she started high school and that was only because she showed herself responsible enough.
It is for emergencies only, stays turned off in her backpack until she gets off the bus after school, and she's allowed to call/text her friends until 7pm.
At 15 she has no further "need" of a private cel phone.

bagatelle

Oldest son got his first phone 8 years old. His brother got his two years later at same age.

I was angry at my husband, when he upgraded the phone for older son at age 11-12. He bought a phone worth 200 euros! Even angrier, when it shortly ended up in washing machine with his jeans. It didn't recover...

Another mishap was when younger son was able to spend a huge amount of money on text messages during one day when participating in a competition.

We (my husband) is a bit wiser now and they have some limitations to prevent more costs.

I have not allowed my husband to buy himself a new phone, he usually gets an old one from his work-mates, I don't need a fancy mobile either. We have one or two old phones left from boys and recently hubby ordered a SIM card for my daughter on one of the old phones. Daughter is 5 and daddy had promised her a SIM card, when she learns to read... she reads now, has only a couple of numbers saved on it, she can talk worth 10 euros per month. First week had gone and she had already used 50% of that amount. Oh well, maybe this will teach her about the passage of time as well...

LaLa1

My oldest didn't get one until she moved out at the age of 19, and my youngest got one on her 17th birthday.

I didn't think either of them needed a phone when they were younger, just because the other kids had one. But then I wasn't a parent who did things for their kids because that's what others were doing. I tried to raise my girls with the motto of everyone is different and just because someone else has/does it doesn't mean you have to also.

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snowy

I had to borrow my parents' cell phone when I was in high school, but this was before cell phones became so ubiquitous. I was often the only person with a cell phone when we went out.

As I see it, cell phones are a distraction, especially in the classroom. A couple years ago I did a practicum at a local middle school, and I saw the teacher take away cell phones several times while I was there. One kid had his cell phone taken away so many times that it ended up locked up in the office, and his mom had to come in and bail it out. Why did the kid have it out? Because his mom was texting him while he was in class! She said she thought he would wait until break to check his phone; she obviously overestimated the ability of a middle schooler to exert self-control.

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bagatelle

I can see we are living in a bit of different "culture" with the phones, as mobile has almost become a necessity here (Finland).

You can hardly find any public pay phones here. They have rules about the phones in school, so that they wouldn't disturb teaching, but it varies in different schools.

Leto

I heard that Finland has pretty well 100% coverage of cell phone usage (how is the brain cancer incidence there?). Isn't that a result of Nokia? But here in Canada, cell plans are still extortionary in nature which is why I insist on pay as you go and limit it to $10 / month. Cell plans here all require you to lock into 3 year contracts, plus pay a system access fee on top of the monthly rate.

There are still public pay phones here - but they are getting rare.

__________________
You said you didn't give a fuck about hockey
And I never saw someone say that before
You held my hand and we walked home the long way
You were loosening my grip on Bobby Orr

http://dune.wikia.com/wiki/Leto_Atreides_I

Meditrina

When my daughter was in 6th grade, age 11, she was staying after school for the school play as I was driving home from work. I started to worry that she had no way to call me if the bus never picked her up, so I gave her one of my old cell phones. Started off with minimal texting and some calls. She cannot take it out during school hours, and we have no signal at home, so it is easy to control when she uses it. Now that she is in 8th grade, I have given her more texting abilities (she latched on to my unlimited texts on the family plan).

My son is 8. He is not a phone person by any means. I wouldn't give him one anyway. He can wait till 6th grade like his sister did. He really does not have any need for it now.

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bagatelle

If the coverage is 100% would any of us notice the brain damage?

I feel quite naked, if I don't have my phone with me. The markets have developed, my husband takes care of our contracts, so I don't really know much, but he is very quick to change the operator, if there's a better offer.

The dial telephone has become quite useless, you don't practically find them at all in younger families.

Nepenthes

My oldest daughter was 12 when she bought her first phone. From my point of view, she was going out with friends more and it is a good way to stay connected.

jewels

The right time is when you feel they're responsible and have a need to stay in touch. Please don't let them pressure you into the "well, all my friends have one" mentality. For my little ones, 13 or 14 was the right age. My older daughter was over 18 and working when she purchased her first, but they weren't as prevalent an accessory back then.

Many of my daughters' friends lose a phone every 6 - 12 months. Even if you buy into the insurance, you're talking about a minimum $50 each for a refurb and a couple of days of down time.

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Grasshopper Green

There is no chance of this in my household. I can't fathom why my son's friends have phones - he's still too young for me not to know where he is and how to get in touch with him wherever that may be. Hubby and I upgraded our phones last night and there was much pouting at the AT&T store. It just got me to thinking, thats all!

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"They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings; steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king"

Formerly Medusa

Amethyst

My kids were 12 and 10. Very young I know but, we don't have a home phone. I did not feel safe leaving them at home without a phone to use.

pzadniko

Hmmm, i don"t have any kids but later is, better is. I don"t think that cellphone should be necessary until highschool.

Zeraph

No kids but I didn't get mine until 18 or 20 ish.

Back when and where I grew up, only drug dealers had cell phones and beepers. So my parents like, "um no".

But I still think its a good idea to wait. I think it messes up their psychological progression to get a cell phone too early (like say before 15 or 14).

Charlatan

My son got his first mobile phone when he was 12. He got it when he moved to Singapore. He was traveling to and from school by himself and I wanted to make sure he could reach us if he needed to.

Come to think of it, he'd been travelling to and from school by himself since he was 10, but in Toronto he was going to a school in the neighbourhood and was largely walking to and from school with his friends.

I get his bill every month and I can say that he never exceeds his flat rates for text messages or hours. Never. It's there so we can reach him or vice versa. Now that he's 16, he uses it more frequently with his friends but no more than I do (i.e. just enough to coordinate).

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Shadowex3

I'm going to second this from the other side. I got my first cellphone around the time i also got a life for the first time.

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