What Age Should We Give Our Kid A Cell Phone?

THUMP

Oct 25 2007, 09:13 AM

i would say when the kid reach 15 years of age. then that would old enough. but younger that age is not really advisable to let them have the celphone. since they are going to play with it and consume too much of their time. and we would not want them have their attention on their cellphone only. we want that they will put more attention to their studies and that they will concwentrate on getting good grades. and enjoying other things like sports and not to worry about texting their friends and they have nothing really the can do much about the cellphone. snice they don't really need it at that age. it will be more like a toy for them. it's an expensive toy for that case.

Liam_CF

Oct 25 2007, 09:58 AM

I think 11. My brother is that age and he really does need it. He goes off all the time and without it we have no way of contacting him or knowing if he is safe.

It's a small price to pay for our sanity/his safety.

silver_wolves

Oct 25 2007, 10:32 AM

I agree with you-I was about 11 when I got my first mobile phone. And my mother didn't have to worry where the hell am I since she could always call me. And about playing with it-well if they don't have a gsm to play with they will either watch television or play on the computer. At least they get used to better technologies from an earlier age. Of course there should be some restricions about calling and if you are so worried you can at least delete the games on the telephone

But connection and safety are important so as I said 10-11 is a good age for giving kids mobile phones

15 is waaaay to late. I mean in our contry nowadays 14-15 years old behave more like 17-18 years old and they are using stuff like that a lot earlier

OneMinute

Oct 25 2007, 12:24 PM

I am speaking here with experience as a kid myself. I got my first handphone though it was kind of faulty at age 12. Right now, i am thirteen, i have a Sony Ericsson handphone in which i use it to inform my parents if i will have to attend to some problems in school like studying in extra revision lessons. Though my parents may be restrictive, it was afterall just for security concerns and to curb their worries.

Hey guys, handphones, we use them too, to store music and retrieve them to hear whenever we want. This cures boredom for 25% of my day wherein i do reading for the rest of the time in my free time!

Darth_Vader

Oct 25 2007, 02:36 PM

I hope kids get it at 13 or 14 as I am 13!

Shawn92

Oct 25 2007, 02:52 PM

i think the best age for a child to be given a cell phone is at age 11 bcuz it is the best wat to contact them in this time

varalu

Oct 25 2007, 03:13 PM

Age is not a constraint here i guess...

If situation demands and if they are matured enough to handle them, they understand their purpose they can be given one. But again...lot of discretion should be already taught to them when it comes to handling things on their own.

Lyon2

Oct 25 2007, 07:18 PM

Obviously, a cell phone is a tool which a kid do not require, at least usually, but even if it could prove to be useful, we or you all should know the risks of a child using a cell phone, which are pretty much the same as for the adults, except the fact that the kid would have access to the internet, it would be expose to radio waves which could damage him fisicaly more then it does to the adult bodies because kids are more fragile, plus, kids should not have access to certain objects/tools until they are 16 years old at least, but it is better just when they are 18 years old, until then they should be educated of the risks, of the benefits and the advantages and disadvantages of using cell phones, one more risk is that anyone can call him, and if a pedophile man/worman calls him, is it not a very big risk, is it not the biggest risk, or even a murderer, a raper or a person that will want to trade the kid for money, or just kill him for revenge?

There are a lot of risks, kids should not have cell phones, never!

xelynn

Oct 25 2007, 09:31 PM

I would have to say around 12 because thats when they start going out and getting more social.

cangor

Oct 25 2007, 10:12 PM

Um, okay, well I would probably say when they enter high school (around 14 here in the US) is probably a good time, because if they're going out and need to stay in contact with their parents a lot then it's pretty handy. If your kid plays a lot of sports then it's probably a good idea for them to have a cell phone. Honestly, though, even in high school a lot of kids don't need one, they just get one because they're spoiled.

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saitunes

Aug 3 2008, 11:22 AM

I think 13 is a good age to get a phone, but the phones these days have way too many features for a kid that age. they won't treat it like its a phone, but like access to the net, music player blah blah blah. Just something that makes calls and sends sms' thats really all they need.

...that or an old hand-me-down

kitto

Jun 24 2008, 08:03 AM

I had a cellphone at around... 13? I didn't really start using it until a few years later, though. I think it's fine (while they're younger, around 14 years of age) if you start them off as using it for emergency situations (like having to be picked up) as opposed to letting them waste their whole day (and ruin their thumbs) by texting on them all the time, haha.

If they don't seem to have a need, I'd hold it off as long as I could, really.

rpgsearcherz

Jun 24 2008, 07:49 AM

I strongly believe that cell phones shouldn't be given based on age, but rather maturity. I have seen some people who are 16-22 for example that spam SMS and calls to people, racking up their phone bills for their parents. On the other hand, there are some younger kids who are responsible and do not use them unless it's for emergencies.

I was personally given both a debit card and a cell phone at age 11-12, but I also knew how to keep complete control over both of them. I never used the credit card as it was for emergencies, and only used the cell phone for calling family if I needed something. Aside from that, nobody ever knew my phone number or anything.

I feel that these are really both a necessity for kids because they can run into situations where they will be needed. At the same time, it should be based upon how much you feel that you can trust your children not to make the wrong decisions with these. To be honest it's kind of a risky situation overall, especially with peer pressure.

If nothing else you could always just use a pre-paid cell phone. This will allow them to use X minutes(which you can obviously monitor - you're buying the cards after all, right?) and this will ensure that they are not using their minutes for wasteful reasons.

ivantoar

Jun 24 2008, 03:19 AM

I got my very own cellphone 4 years ago (age 11). I think a child is ready to get a cellphone around 10-12. At that age, they starting to grow up to teens and at that age they are starting to have responsibility.

Csshih

Jun 24 2008, 02:43 AM

I think that kids can have a cell phone at an early age, but the cell phone shouldn't have many features, like texting which seems to be all the rage these day.

Personally, I don't think that texting is very fun, I never use that feature.

Maybe they can only have a few numbers, and cen be only used certain times of the day.

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