Would you let an 8yr old have a PAYG Phone?

**Patty**

andygb wrote: »

Our nutty relations always let their four year old son play with their Iphone (to keep him quiet I suppose), and there are always tears when they try to take it off him!:mad:
So, what is their great idea to stop this?

They are buying him an Iphone for his 5th birthday:eek:

How mad is that?

Would they like to adopt me?

I'm 45 & i quite fancy an iPhone

Janepig

I'm wavering with DD who is 9 about getting her a phone for christmas. The one I'm thinking of is £7.50 a month (which I can afford) on Tesco mobile, and you can cap the tariff so that she can't spend any more than that. I think that in the long run it might end up cheaper than buying a PAYG one and losing track of how much I'm topping up for her. I've got one foot in the "too young" camp, but her group of "best friends" all seem to have got them, and she's been sending texts to them using my phone over the summer holidays. Her school has got a large catchment area so none of her friends are in the streets nearby, and in that respect it's been handy for her to keep in touch.

She hasn't got a tv in her bedroom though, and I'm standing firm on that one. I will not waver!!

Jx

Bufger

My 2 year old has a phone



Its sings old macdonald and flashes up pictures of different animals. he can use that until he's old enough to pay for his own phone regardless of what his friends have.

Mrs_Ryan

raven83 wrote: »

I've seen kids as young as 7 on it. And there are often pitcures of their mums on nights out getting up to all sorts of drunken antics, do I really want my daughters to see that? Hell no! Not to mention the things posted on the news feed that can be rather explicit. I just don't think it is nice for kids to be on it. Kids don't play like they use to either which is a sad shame, and a lot of it is due to too much technoligy.

My eldest nephew is nearly 14 and he has a Twitter account. He keeps pestering me to let him follow me but I wont let him - my sister says its inappropriate and I agree, some of my conversations are wayyyy too adult for his eyes but even if they werent I wouldnt let him!!

My younger nephew is 9 and he got a BlackBerry for Christmas - I couldnt believe it!! I have a BlackBerry myself that I pay a stupid amount of money for per month and accordingly use very heavily for various reasons but Im thinking what on earth does a 9 year old need a BlackBerry for?!

themull1

If it was me, i would just get her a cheap mobile, put a blingy sparkly cover on it, and make her happy at christmas for very little cost, so what if she doesn't use it often, she will probably come back to it when she's older. if all her friends have got one why not? my daughter is 10 and has just started using one of our cast off phones, she doesn't use one that often yet, but she will start soon i'm sure. If she's capable of using a phone it won't really matter if you get her one now, in six months, or a year. You might as well use christmas as the reason!

themull1

Janepig wrote: »

I'm wavering with DD who is 9 about getting her a phone for christmas. The one I'm thinking of is £7.50 a month (which I can afford) on Tesco mobile, and you can cap the tariff so that she can't spend any more than that. I think that in the long run it might end up cheaper than buying a PAYG one and losing track of how much I'm topping up for her. I've got one foot in the "too young" camp, but her group of "best friends" all seem to have got them, and she's been sending texts to them using my phone over the summer holidays. Her school has got a large catchment area so none of her friends are in the streets nearby, and in that respect it's been handy for her to keep in touch.

She hasn't got a tv in her bedroom though, and I'm standing firm on that one. I will not waver!!

Jx

My kids have both got sky in their bedrooms - i think i've spoiled them! But they can watch what they want, and there's no squabbling about films for the older one, and cartoons for the younger one. I would hate my TV downstairs taken over with Hannah Montana!!

raven83

My DD8 had a friend round the other week and when she saw I had a Facebook account asked me if I would add her!!!! I just don't think it is appropriate at all especially as I like to have a laugh on it and can have quite adult themed conversations

My oldest even remarked that some of her school pals have better phones than I do and I have a Blackberry too, it is a bit sickening tbh.

Gordon_Hose

Like I've said before... there seems to have been a shift in power between adults and kids at some point over the last 36 years I have been alive. I can't figure out when it happened.

If all the kids at school started getting tattoo's on their faces, would you bow to peer pressure then?

My son turns 8 in a few weeks. He's far too young for a phone.

Janepig

themull1 wrote: »

My kids have both got sky in their bedrooms - i think i've spoiled them! But they can watch what they want, and there's no squabbling about films for the older one, and cartoons for the younger one. I would hate my TV downstairs taken over with Hannah Montana!!

I think with TV I just want to know what they're watching. Especially as they're of an age now where they like to scare themselves stupid so gawd knows what they'd end up watching. DD's got a fear of sharks now for some reason, DS loves them, so they like to watch Shark documentaries and then DD can't sleep!!

Luckily DS is the boss of the TV downstairs (when I'm willing!!!) so their viewing tends to be limited to Mr Bean, Loony Tunes and Tom and Jerry, so thankfully the amount of American rubbish they see is very few and far between! DD will read for a while when she goes to bed and I'm happy to let that carry on.

Jx

Cat501

themull1 wrote: »

If it was me, i would just get her a cheap mobile, put a blingy sparkly cover on it, and make her happy at christmas for very little cost, so what if she doesn't use it often, she will probably come back to it when she's older. if all her friends have got one why not? my daughter is 10 and has just started using one of our cast off phones, she doesn't use one that often yet, but she will start soon i'm sure. If she's capable of using a phone it won't really matter if you get her one now, in six months, or a year. You might as well use christmas as the reason!

Totally agree with you. Really can't see the harm in a cheap one with restricted usage.

After all, how many of the Christmas presents we get for our kids are things they actually NEED?