Why I Gave My 11 Year Old A Phone
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Technology and children seems to be a heated subject these days. Especially the issue of giving cell phones to children. Google ‘cell phones and children’ and the first page of results is all sorts of reasons NOT to put a phone in the hands of your tween. It is all doom and gloom.
I don’t agree with all of the negativity. I believe it is possible to give tweens a phone AND keep them safe. Cell phones are just another tool and we need to teach our children how to use them responsibly.
A few months ago we gave my daughter a phone for her eleventh birthday.
We felt it was important for a few reasons:
- We do not have a house phone line.
- She is old enough to stay home alone for a short period of time.
- It helps her stay connected to friends and family back east.
I know other parents that gave their children cell phones because of medical issues. They need a phone with preloaded contacts in case of an emergency.
More and more houses are ditching the landline to save money. We got rid of our home phone because the only people who ever called our house line were telemarketers. I’m okay with spending less time talking to them.
Normally not having a home phone is not a problem. My husband and I are pretty much always within arms reach of our phones so we can get to them anytime we need to make a call. Our cell phones get great coverage so I don’t worry about not being able to call for help.
We needed to reconsider our ‘no home phone’ status as Hannah got older though. She is now old enough to stay home alone for short periods of time and I won’t leave her without a way to call for help – whether that is me, a neighbor, or 911.
Tips for Mixing Cell Phones and Children
Keep it cheap
It is quite possible that a tween will misplace or break their phone at some point. Plan for that so you aren’t furious if it happens. We chose to hand down my husband’s two-year old phone to Hannah. It was easy to reset it to factory settings and get her a google voice phone number. It felt like a new phone once it was in a shiny new case.
Keep it simple
We reset the phone back to factory settings so we were able to be selective about which apps were installed. We have opted to keep it social media free for the next few years. No Facebook, no Instagram, no Pinterest, and no SnapChat or whatever new social media is popular these days. She can use the phone for calls, texts, email, a camera, and Netflix. That’s about it.
Set some ground rules
Make your expectations clear from the beginning. The rules you set will depend on the maturity level of your child. We require the phone to be put away during co-op time and after bedtime. There is nothing super fun on the phone, so it isn’t really tempting to be on it all the time. She is also required to keep the phone on her if I pop out to run an errand.
Most of the time Hannah uses her phone to text and email her grandmas or add items to the grocery list when I’m at the store. Pretty sweet and innocent stuff. It is definitely not the illicit behavior that the media keeps telling us is inevitable.
She has now had a phone for 7 months without a single problem.
How do you feel about mixing cell phones and children?
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