My daughters best friend has just got her first mobile phone she is 7. Is it me being a prude or out of touch or is this just too early. I was thinking around 10 y/o or so was a good/sensible age for a mobile. It is not like they (kids) go far other than to school and are walked there and back.

The child in question has her ears pierced and is already wearing make-up when she goes out she is exceptionally tall for her age although not mentally as old as our daughter. I think kids should have a proper childhood before materialism and adulthood and the responsibilities that go along with growing up are upon them - am i just too old fashioned???

I just do not see the point...

 

I agree with you Paul.

I also think that the microwave RF effects of a mobile near to the head may well be bad over the long term, and children are more vulnerable at their earlier stages of physical development.

I know that many say that is wrong, but there are enough people, even the Government who say that children are more vulnerable and that there may also be long term effects on anyone. Time will tell, but I for one am not prepared to risk it.

Les

 

Good point, which kind of got me thinking, just who is it she is going to call? She wouldent or shouldent be too far from her parents at that age so doubt she would need to call them, her friends I would assume are the same age as her and doubt they will have phones, well maybe the odd one or two but overall a small percentage, so who is she going to call?

 

I got my daughter got a mobile on her 10th birthday.
10 is about right - 7 is way too young.

 

Les - good point, never considered the physical implications!

RA Dunk - agreed she won't e calling my girls for the next few years that's for sure.

I really do like her parents - both good people but i do think they have got this one completely wrong!

 

My boy is in junior school at the mo (10 years old) and a few have them, mainly the girls, (not turned on at school I hasten to add, but they own them).

From talking to the rugby parents it looks like most are giving in next year when they move up to the bigger school.

He loses at least a sock a week FFS!

So, I agree with you too Paul, but I'll bow to peer pressure because I don't want my boy to be the only one who's "different"

 

Since our daughter has been going out (as in on the estate which isn't very big) she's had a phone to take with her - she was 8 at the start of the summer which is when we gave her a spare phone.

She's 9 now and we got her a phone for her birthday. Some of her friends have them but she doesn't really use it anyway. Its main job is so she can call us and vice versa. The phone doesn't do internet and that kind of thing.

I don't see the problem as long as its seen as a tool for contact rather than a status symbol.

She's having a netbook for Xmas which she can use in the front room with us. It won't be going upstairs to her room or in the toy room.

 

Longer the better so thy Dnt strt 2 rite lk dis all d time

 

Just took their daughter home, mum immediately mentioned the phone (sort of embarrassed as she knows my feelings on the subject) and then justified it by saying the phone was only 99p with a tenners worth of sim/top up credit.

Cool i hate to think how much the calls charges will be

I am pretty sure even the carmoan warehouse do not actually hold a gun to your head until you buy something.

I think that i will hold off for a couple of years.

Eddscott is the your 'toy room' above the servants quarters?

 

No Kids over 30 should be given an iphone

 

Another reason I won't be having kids. I was bad enough growing up and I don't want a mini-me being in an even worse situation.
I don't think any kid under 14 should have or need a phone

 

I think once they go to senior school so around 11 is about right and only then if they get one that only does calls no internet etc.

If they abuse it then take it off of them or set it up so it will only call certain numbers ie home etc.

 

I got my daughter a mobile phone when she was 8 as we were going on holiday to america and I wanted to keep in touch if she wandered out of sight

 

Servants get their own cottage in the grounds - what what!!!



Toy room = dining room

 

We had a red telephone box in the village

Most exciting thing about telephones when I was a kid was ringing dial a disc

Try and see if she can enjoy a bit more childhood without moving into walk around like a texting zombie phase

 

Dial-a-disc! I'd forgotten about that!


Are you sure you're not older than you're letting on Loz?

 

I think they should have one when they are allowed to go out unsupervised, they are in essence a life saver at times.

 

Eh up Bridgette!

Arrived on planet earth just and year and a half before man landed on the moon

As long as the phone has no internet access and is just a telephone (like my non state of the art one)

Oh I don't know what age....we were fairly barred from even using the home one as kids!

 

Not for my kid who is 9 almost 10. When they are old enough to venture out on their own IMHO ie to keep in touch rather than as a fashion accessory (sp?).

TX.

 

I think it is crazy personally - I have seen kids of primary school age running about with the latest blackberry or Iphone. I just don't get it - i would be buying the crappiest old phone with most basic functionality - ie it lets you make or take calls, and they wouldn't be having it until they were 16.

I would like the see the call history / text inbox of any kids phone just to see the crap that is sent by SMS / MMS. I am fairly sure 99% of it is pointless nonsense.

If they want to make calls, there is a land line in the house, and I can monitor who is calling in and who they are placing calls to.

Draconian maybe - but I'm not one to be swayed by the masses.

 

My daughters mate has an iphone.....aged 11!!!!

Crazy

 

I'm all for it - if the chavscum parents want to fry their chavscum-in-training kids brains, then so be it.

As good a method as any to increase the quality of the genepool!

 

My son has had my "hand me downs" since he was eight, I was keen for him to have one mainly due to it being difficult to contact him at times, every time I wanted to speak to him I had to go through his mother (ex partner) and was quizzed about what I wanted to speak to hime about etc.

He does however pay for his credit with his own pocket money, and when it's gone it's gone. So a little money management for him to learn.

 

If my kids start writing like that i'm going to make them do "lines". Teach them how to write properly

 

So if a child of 9 has a mobile it is automatically chav-scum?

Overreact much?

 

Seven years of age is way too young. I don't think that any child under the age of 13/14 should need a mobile.
Until a child is going out somewhere that there isn't another parent looking after them I don't see that a mobile is needed.

Surely it's just adding another status symbol onto the 'I want I NEED' list that is ever present in the social circles of children?

Addidas trainers - Yes
Bench hoody - Yes
Etc, etc....

Lets add to that a 'must have' mobile phone.

A friend of my sis in law has just boughter her 11 year old daughter a I love PB bag, costing over £120. This is apparently her main christmas gift, but she already has a list of small things she also wants!

It's crazy. But in all honesty, if the children ask, and the parents give in to them, it's the parents who are mostly to blame, You can't blame a child for trying it on.

 

agree 100% with the above

 

Don't your children go out on their own before 13/14?

Our daughter has been allowed only on to the estate this year (8 - its been a worry for sure but its a quiet neighbourhood) and therefore in our opinion needs a phone. When it gets a little dark and she's still out its a worry looking for her or calling the other girls parents looking for her. To me its much simpler for her to have her phone on her so we can contact her.

 

They are only 3 and 4 years of age, but NO, I dont intend on them going anywhere other than here, OR the next estate where luckily, my mother in law lives. Not until ther are 12/13 perhaps.

The same rule applies as does if the nephews are here playing between estates. They check in at nannys, she calls me to say they are there, and then the same before they leave.

Under the age of 7/8 I don't think I don't think a child is responsible enough to even look after a mobile when out away from home, never mind themselves.

Yes 'back in the day' it was considered safe to be playing out with friends here, there and everywhere. Sadly the last thing I would be concerned about around here is an 8 year old losing his/her mobile phone.
It's a sign of the times, but where I live just isn't safe for a child that young to be out alone. But that's a bit off topic.

 

late as poss i would say, joining high school at 11 is about right, our kids are like zombies half the time texting, really annoying seeing as their mates live in the next street, drives me mad so they regually lose them for a week or so, ive even chucked one in a river as i couldnt get any sense out of her, just glued to the screen so in it went.