New guide: Buying your child their first phone - mobile phones for kids

MSE_Chris

Hi all,

We have new Buying your child their first phone guide, and we'd love to hear your feedback.

If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply.

Thanks for your help,

MSE Chris

liggerz87

Interesting read got nothing to ad it's brilliant 

Stuart_W

As a primary school teacher for longer than I care to remember and having been the online safety lead for the last 11 years, I can tell you the issue of when to buy a child a phone is without doubt the one online safety issue parents really get tied up in knots over. At my school, phone ownership amongst year 5 and year 6 pupils (that's 9 to 11 year olds) seems to be a little lower now than it was just before lockdown. 
 
This is certainly a moneysaving guide that will be in demand. 

From my professional experience, I would say the list of links at the end is an important feature. You've also explained family settings well. Apple, Google and Microsoft have really improved their family settings over the last decade. It would be great if you could add one of the sentences you've used to a notice at the top of the article, something like:

Important! We're moneysaving experts not online safety experts. Your child should feel safe online whether they are using their own device or a shared family one. For help and support with online safety for families please see this list of helpful resources. 

From a technical point of view, it is possible to achieve the kind of monitoring and restrictions offered by ParentShield SIM by using one of the many third party monitoring apps, things like kidsguard and eyesy which can read every text, monitor every keystroke and screenshot etc. There are lots about, I am no expert in these or advocate their use, but if they can offer the monitoring and restriction features of ParentShield, the subscription cost plus cheapest SIM could come in cheaper than ParentShield - but that's a moneysaving point so your area not mine!

Well done on writing the guide and giving online safety the high attention it needs to in an article that is still primarily focussed on moneysaving. Parents are in need of practical, realistic advice. Too many of my colleagues within the primary sector continue to (well-meaningly) trot out age limits for apps and programs and consider saying "they're too young for that" as all a parent needs to hear. Children desparately need safe spaces online to learn, make mistakes, and be able to learn and grow in their online citizenship. That's really hard to foster and takes very resilient parenting. Digital parenting is hard and parents need as much support as possible. Your article is one of those bits of support. Well done. 

matelodave

Before buying a phone for your child have a listen to this and then make sure you take on-line safety very seriously, lay down the rules and don't allow unlimited or secretive use. - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001wxlt

Pescur

I appreciate the report but I would advise anyone DO NOT DO IT

Forget social pressure, get an old non smartphone if you really must but disable the internet and use it for emergencies only.

The same applied to Ipads and laptops, block access.  One tip is to never give the password of your wifi, have an old Wireless N router you can get free on Freecycle and plug it next to main router, then unplug it when you want to completely deny access.  

No devices in bedrooms is critical and charge any devices downstairs or in parents bedroom.

To be honest the way the Internet is these days I would seriously suggest we have an age limit of 21, including social media sites.

I will spare you the details of what happened to a member of my family, but if you imagine your worst nightmare and multiply it by 100 you will not even be close.

The damage caused to children extends well into adulthood.

Pescur

"

Don't want your child to have access to the internet?

If you just want you child to have a phone that's capable of calls or texts in an emergency, with no access to the internet, there are options. 

You can go for a pay-as-you-go Sim and simply turn off mobile data with your device's parental controls. The Sim does technically still have the ability to connect to the internet, but your child wouldn't be able to do so unless you allow it.

You can technically do this with any Sim, but if you get one on contract, most come with a data allowance included, so if you completely block internet access you're paying for something you don't need. 

However, there is one contract Sim from Asda Mobile* that comes with unlimited minutes and texts (but no data) for £4 a month on a one-month contract (so you can cancel at anytime). That means they're always contactable but won't have mobile internet. Though be aware without mobile data, features such as 'Find my Device' or 'Find my iPhone' wont work unless it's connected to Wi-Fi.

Sadly this is not enough, wifi would be accessible from a hotspot of their mates or the school library.

It is not just a matter of putting access under parental controls, you need to put strong security on making changes to to the phone settings and never give these to anyone nor write them down.

Kids will know the workarounds better than you do, that is why a zero access policy is better and the best way to give them zero access is a naff old phone you get for £15 from Tesco or for free on Freecycle.

If you want the find my device, there are GPS trackers that are not mobile phone and even the Apple Air Tag is an option.

Remember the previous generation did not need any of this stuff, not mobiles, not social media and they are far less damaged.

Children lie, you learn when they are 4 and start nursery that despite all your best intentions they learn everything from profanity to bullying from children of poor parents.

Maintaining your standards and protecting your children means you have to put in the hard work, always be there on time, be the ogre if that is what it takes.