Children and mobile phones

[lis351]

Mr11 was telling me today how another student in his class (grade 5/6) was in trouble for receiving a text message in class. In truth, she was probably more in trouble for having her phone on and volume on, rather than receiving the actual message.

But I was wondering, how many 10/11 year olds are carrying mobile phones these days?? And what age would you think it appropriate??

I had not thought to give my kids a phone at this stage, even though they walk to and from school and take bikes/scooters to local parks without my immediate supervision.

[cosmosgrove]

My son would never leave the house if he had to have credit. He never buys it, I rarely send/purchase credit for him, it's just not a priority for him. 

He probably had an old Nokia given to him when he was about 11 or 12, the last year or two of primary school. Mainly because he would walk/ride to and from school by himself. i think the only time I ever received a call on it was when he dropped it out the front of the school, someone found it and phoned 'Mum' in the contacts. 

[catsnknots]

I got the youngest son a phone and he never used it... he gave the number to friends and they would send messages and he would never reply....I would also call him and he would never answer..... 

He no longer has a phone... 

the eldest one however has had a phone for years... I paid for the first one and he has paid for all phone since... now 19 he has a Galaxy2 and will soon have the Galaxy3... 

[lis351]

Ah Cat, that's another question I wanted to ask, does anyone 'monitor' the contacts list so they're not made up of Mum, Dad and 100 randoms?? Are there rules on who is allowed to have the number??

[ten*teeny*tiny*toes]

So no-one else has their 13yo permanently attached with ear bud pods not hearing a word outside yourube.

[**meep**]

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@ten*teeny*tiny*toes wrote:
So no-one else has their 13yo permanently attached with ear bud pods not hearing a word outside yourube.

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i also assumed everyone else did.

[catsnknots]

My rule was that I will randomly check your phone whenever I choose... 

They were not to delete messages... if they got a rude (porn) text they had better tell me or they might end up in big trouble... then you need to go on and explain the laws about child expolitation and that even though they might be a kid too they can be held accountable for any such messages they sent on. 

we only ever had one problem.... that so freaked my eldest son out at the time that he came and told me about the trauma of the message...  it was a good lesson about how to handle situations that were not of their making... it also made them think about who they gave their number too. 

Like all things... educate from the start.. set your expectations and never move from them unless you feel they are able to be more responsible. You can limit some phones, use apps to limit.. it really depends on what you want the phone to be used for. 

[acacia_pycnantha]

Just wondering what the average teenager's mobile phone bill is per month and who pays for it and does this expense cause any hardship in managing the family budget?

[*crikey*mate*]

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@lis351 wrote:
Hmmm, pretty much what I thought.

Like I said, they don't go far at this stage, but we have an old Samsung for them to use when they do.

I guess I was just surprised (shouldn't have been, in this techno age LOL) that a kid had a phone and was receiving texts in the middle of Math class. LOL.

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ours aren't allowed to have them during school hours. They have to check them in on arrival and collect them when they leave.

They've really cracked down on this in the last year or so.

We had a lock down cos some dude held up the store at the end of the street with a gun - heaps of kids texted their parents and all these panicked parents either turned up at the school (yeah, lets all go down to the place where some nutter is running around with a gun, eh?) or flooded the phone lines.... (helloooo - we are in an emergency situation here - we need to keep the phonelines open and it'd be good if the staff could concentrate on the issue at hand and keep your children safe rather than talking to you!!!!!)

[ten*teeny*tiny*toes]

Phew meep. I was feeling a bit weird there for a minute .
It is harder and harder to monitor their use now Cat. Phones are like diaries, I am also very worried about the content our young ones have access to. I could control it on the computer... I cant on the phone!

[catsnknots]

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@acacia_pycnantha wrote:

Just wondering what the average teenager's mobile phone bill is per month and who pays for it and does this expense cause any hardship in managing the family budget?

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it was $10 per month pre paid and that gave something like $150 per month in usage. 

When the eldest one wanted more he used pocket money.... the youngest one never used one cent...