Choosing right mobile phone for my children

groovy_chick

Okay, so I was a child of the eighties, which entitles me to say " we never needed phones, we climbed trees and reversed the charges at the phone box if we needed to call home".

However, now I am a mum of the 2010's and it is HARD. The kids all have better phones than we do; they use them to mange their friendships and take pictures of their homework. Our secondary school allow them to be used in class to make notes, look stuff up and essentially do the kind of things that I use my phone for at work!

I would say, get them the best phone that you can afford, because this is now the world that we live in and it is never going back. Mobile connectivity is the way forward and it has as many benefits as it has downsides.

I will probably be slated by the "earth parents" on here, but I am just being realistic based on my experience.

GCx

sooty&sweep

Hi

I got my son the Motorola Moto G from Tescos for about £13 per month.

As others have said we didnt have one when we were children but when I was that age their were pay phones everywhere & they aren't now.

I got my son a phone when he went to secondary school but to be honest he often forgets to take it with him !

In terms of social media I insisted that my son had people I trusted as friends so if necessary we could see if anything is going on. Although to be honest he's not really interested in using it.

Jenny xxx

ThumbRemote

You don't say how old the children are. Assuming they are old enough, is there a reason you don't want them on social media? The other stuff about contacting strangers etc doesn't automatically happen just because they have social media.

Supervised access is far better than an outright ban. Kids will just find a way round a ban, be it using a friends phone or laptop, library or school PCs or something else. At least if you're supervising then you know what's going on.

mary_hinge

I think it is great that we have all had a trip down memory lane and ".....in my day...." but in reality child these days do have a vast interest in modern technology. My daughter is 12 and her school have actually used the childrens phones in media studies, art, photography and even drama! They have strict rules about the use of them in school times but it seems to work ok.

I agree if there is an emergency in school hours school can contact the parents but the OP says her children are traveling 20minutes each way to school - I assume that is the reason phones have been mentioned! You can download a tracker that works on gps so you can see where they are on their journey home!

My daughter has had a phone since she was 10, she currently has a iphone 4 that was spare after an upgrade. She has a sim only contract with Vodafone for £9.50 a month which gives her plenty of data, calls and unlimted texts. I have capped the bill at £15 but she never goes over her allowance and it is alot better value then PAYG

As for not wanting the social media extra... I have the pin code for what apps can be installed but the browser will still work for things like facebook etc... I think trust needs to be built, regular phone checks can be put in place until then.

Mupette

yes we didn't have phones in our day, but we are raising a generation of snowflakes that have everything handed to them, and expect everything, but don't know how to do anything. There aren't many but they are out there, parents that actually say no.

Yes there are phone boxes still out there.

No my son didn't get bullied for not having a mobile in school.

No your child will not die of embarrassment because they don't have one and everyone else did.

They don't NEED phones for lessons, and teachers that allow it are wrong, because those that don't have one will be made to feel left out, again pandering to the snowflakes.

FBaby

I think you might want to have a serious family talk about all this. My kids are very confident by nature and not the type to be bothered by what others think, but even so, they would have been embarassed by having a basic phone, not because of the brand, but because it passes the exact message you want to make clear to your kids 'you can't be trusted with a touch phone screen'.

Then you have to take into account that even with a phone, teenagers will answer only when they feel like it. That's not a case of 'oh, mum is calling, I'm not picking it up' more a 'oops, the phone was in my bag, the bag was on the grass as we played football so didn't hear it ring' kind of response.

I got my DS an EE Harriett which is just as good as a Samsung for what he wants to do, and half the price. It does mean that he had to look after it and he knew that. He is not a big media fan, not his thing, but he does chat with his friends that way at home, and yes, at 13, it is quite a big part of their lives, however, it doesn't have to be negative. DS is actually out and about more often now than he used to be (mainly because his friends are now allowed to go out on their own) and his phone has just become one of the various way he entertains himself, however, especially in the summer, he would pick going to play football before a session on his phone.

I do think smart phones are part of their generation but seeing it as something evil is only going to frustrate your kids and make them believe you are not in with your time, which I think is more dangerous than allowing them reasonable access to modernism.

pickledonionspaceraider

Mupette wrote: »

yes we didn't have phones in our day, but we are raising a generation of snowflakes that have everything handed to them, and expect everything, but don't know how to do anything. There aren't many but they are out there, parents that actually say no.

Yes there are phone boxes still out there.

No my son didn't get bullied for not having a mobile in school.

No your child will not die of embarrassment because they don't have one and everyone else did.

They don't NEED phones for lessons, and teachers that allow it are wrong, because those that don't have one will be made to feel left out, again pandering to the snowflakes.

I could not agree more.

Children do not need phones. A lot of schools do not allow them anyway.

You reap what you sew, and in this case, if you insist on namby pambying kids...take one guess at what you will get

consumers_revenge

mary_hinge wrote: »

I think it is great that we have all had a trip down memory lane and ".....in my day...." but in reality child these days do have a vast interest in modern technology. My daughter is 12 and her school have actually used the childrens phones in media studies, art, photography and even drama! They have strict rules about the use of them in school times but it seems to work ok.

I agree if there is an emergency in school hours school can contact the parents but the OP says her children are traveling 20minutes each way to school - I assume that is the reason phones have been mentioned! You can download a tracker that works on gps so you can see where they are on their journey home!

My daughter has had a phone since she was 10, she currently has a iphone 4 that was spare after an upgrade. She has a sim only contract with Vodafone for £9.50 a month which gives her plenty of data, calls and unlimted texts. I have capped the bill at £15 but she never goes over her allowance and it is alot better value then PAYG

As for not wanting the social media extra... I have the pin code for what apps can be installed but the browser will still work for things like facebook etc... I think trust needs to be built, regular phone checks can be put in place until then.

Can you recommend a lock app by pin code app please?

FBaby

Children do not need phones

Children don't need many things. They don't need to be driven anywhere, they don't need a nice and comfortable bedroom, they don't need heating (they can wear extra clothing), they don't need haircuts, nor do they need activities, friends for sleep overs etc...

I really don't see the point of argument to say that they shouldn't get phone because they don't need them. Like everything in their lives, it's about moderation and what they do with the things. Most kids starting secondary school now have them, does this mean they are all turning into delinquents, whilst the few who are forbidden them by their parents will be the only ones turning into responsible adults?

One thing we owe our children is to evolve in their generation!

Mupette

FBaby wrote: »

Children don't need many things. They don't need to be driven anywhere, they don't need a nice and comfortable bedroom, they don't need heating (they can wear extra clothing), they don't need haircuts, nor do they need activities, friends for sleep overs etc...

I really don't see the point of argument to say that they shouldn't get phone because they don't need them. Like everything in their lives, it's about moderation and what they do with the things. Most kids starting secondary school now have them, does this mean they are all turning into delinquents, whilst the few who are forbidden them by their parents will be the only ones turning into responsible adults?

One thing we owe our children is to evolve in their generation!

ok let me rephrase it.

Children don't need phones in school when they should be learning