Choosing right mobile phone for my children

hello007007

All three of my children are moving to schools in september,15/20mins from home. The two oldest are in secondary school and the youngest in a middle school.

I feel the need to give the kids phones so they and I can easily communcate.

One problem is I dont want to give them a touch screen phone because I dont want them to have social media accounts, contact stangers, upload their photos to the internet, visit chat rooms in the games they play etc...

There's currently little trust - Last year, we gave my daughter a phone so she had one for school. She spent all her free time on it - playing games, taking photos, watching youtube, listening to music etc... I found it hard to make sure she balanced her time with the phone - my other two where reading, going to the libuary, play outside - talking to us!

My daughters phone was taken away a few months later. As we told her not to make any social media accounts - she couldnt stop herself and made a facebook account. I know many many parents dont mind facebook but its not for us yet.

I could buy them a simple phone but they want a touch screen. they say they will be buillied if they had such a basic phone.

What kind of phones do your kids have? Have you had any nasty experiances?

Caroline_a

Bullied for a simple phone? Then I wouldnt bother. My kids didn't have phones... but then nor did anyone apart from a few City yuppies in those days!

They had no problem keeping in touch with me for emergencies - which really is all that is needed - using the school secretary's desk phone. To be honest I can only remember them calling me once (when the school closed due to snow).

Mupette

I can't understand the NEED for a child to have a mobile for school. Will it enhance their learning, doubt it, if they can get away with playing on it then they are not learning in class.

interstellaflyer

Mupette wrote: »

I can't understand the NEED for a child to have a mobile for school. Will it enhance their learning, doubt it, if they can get away with playing on it then they are not learning in class.

My daughters secondary school does not allow phone use during the school day, including break times and Lunch time. The only feature they can use is the camera in some circumstances, if it's relevant to a lesson, but they are not allowed to take pics of each other or selfies.

System

You can buy them cheap Nokia Lumia touch screens and set the parental controls on them so they can only access what you want them to. Even though they are cheap phones you wont have to worry about them being bullied because they look quite stylish :cool:

You wont have to worry about popular apps either because they run on windows which has nothing good!

DCFC79

If you do get them a phone get them either a payg sim or a sim from a network where you can get it capped for example Tesco Mobile.

Rev

I have several cousins who are school age and have been informed several times by all of them (they all go to different schools too) that unless you have an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy then you wouldn't dare show your phone in school anyway.

As unbelievable as it sounds to some. Schools are bloody harsh. Kids get bullied for anything and everything. Not the right name on the clothes. The wrong colour hair. The wrong shoes etc etc.

Your kids will be fine with no mobile phone. And unless you get them one that fits the criteria they'll never use it for fear of being bullied anyway. So you're wasting your money.

In an emergency the school will call you.

mikebusano

In the old days children don't have phones yet and they survived.. but yeah its an indispensible thing nowadays. You can't hide a phone from your children for too long, eventually they will be curious and would want one.

It just depends on how you will instill them the importance of being responsible.

OP I have no idea on the phone you will use as my baby is not a year old yet . Maybe someday I'll have the same problem as you do.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Get a cheap Alcatel Pixi. There's not enough processing speed on the things to be able to get anywhere with the apps. And not enough internal memory to work properly, either; it's possible to do internet searches and possibly run a bus timetable app, maybe have a couple of photos and a tiny bit of music, at which point it will grind to a halt and just about manage texts and calls.

Not entirely certain why social media is a problem for you once they're 13, though. It's got to be easier to know it's there and monitor it than force it underground.


The kids at school have a wide range of phones. Most are hand me downs from when parents have upgraded or they're cheap as chips anyway. Despite there being plenty of attention given to appearances, nobody seems that bothered by how fancy a phone they have - and lots will say they've only got a cheap phone because they can't be bothered with risking losing an expensive one or getting it confiscated.

Just remind them to switch it off and put it in their bags before they walk in the school gates and switch it on after they walk back out again.

interstellaflyer

mikebusano wrote: »

In the old days children don't have phones yet and they survived.. but yeah its an indispensible thing nowadays. You can't hide a phone from your children for too long, eventually they will be curious and would want one.

The thing is, we had or wanted things our parents never had when we were kids/teenagers, today it's smart phones and tablets, back then it was the latest portable music system, walkman, Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Nintendo games consul, Game boy.

iammumtoone

When I went out as a kid my Dad would always make sure I had enough money on me to make a phone call home if necessary. If I needed to do this there would be a phone box close near by.

I can't remember the last time I walked past a phone box, so what parents are doing now, making sure kids have the means to contact home if necessary, is no different to what my dad did years ago.