Mobile phone at aged 9?

shortdog

My daughter is 9, and she got a mobile last year after a fantastic report card. However, the real reason she got a mobile is because she had started playing out round the village with her friends, and I wanted to be able to keep in touch with her.
She has a really cheap £5 phone, which had £20 credit on it last year, and hasn't needed topping up yet. She's got a few numbers stored on it, all adults, mainly family, who she can call in an emergency, and I check her texts and call logs every so often (generally about once a month, and always in front of her - she's convinced I check much more often than that, and I'm not going to let her know otherwise!). She's not allowed her phone upstairs in her bedroom, or at school.
She also has an Iphone, but it's my partners old one, on flight mode, mainly so she can play games. That was a compromise instead of me buying her an Ipod touch. She's not allowed on facebook, and that won't change until she is at secondary school at least, and she knows that.
I suppose it's like everything else, it all depends on the child, how responsible they are, and what freedom etc they have. It's also ultimatley a parents choice (like everything else!)

19lottie82

emsywoo123 wrote: »

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-WITHOUT-PACKAGING-Apple-iPhone-3GS-32GB-Black-Orange-Smartphone-/110860132134?pt=UK_Mobile_Phones&hash=item19cfc75f26#ht_500wt_1156

As an example.

This phone was unsold tho, looks like the seller pulled it early. You're still looking at £200+ for a new iPhone 3GS on eBay, which I admit is less than from apple, but it's still a lot for a phone for a child.

emsywoo123

................................

jansus

I bought my son his first phone at 9 a £10.00 cheapie, he has no money on it and can't access the internet, it's purely so i can contact him if he is at his friends to make sure he is ok.

retromother

My stepson has a phone at nine purely so his dad, brother and paternal grandparents can speak to him (his mum won't answer her mobile to us unless it's 'pick up day' as it's inconvenient apparently) between his visits. People outside our family wouldn't know that. Not everything is black and white.