Cellphones and children - What age is appropriate?
Categories: Toddlers, Preschoolers, Life & style, Playground bureau
For many, BC could easily stand for "Before Cellphones," so unimaginable is life without these handy devices.
And while giving a child his or her own cell phone is now nearly as common a ritual as buying them a bike, the age cellphone ownership is appropriate for children is still rather uncharted territory. The allure of GPS tracking capability has parents of children as young as three considering a cell phone a worthwhile investment in safety, in the even of the child being separated from them in a crowd.
While giving a toddler their own cell phone seems rather extreme, the age at which a child is given a cell phone is rapidly plummeting. The Center on Media and Child Health web site states that 54 percent of 8- to 12-year-olds will have a cell phone in the next three years.
In our house, we didn't feel the kids needed cell phones until they were old enough to be involved in after school activities. Having a cell phone meant they could call when the bus was returning after an out of town game and save us from a forty-five minute wait in the school parking lot. And with pay phones practically on the endangered species list, a cell phone means they can get 911 assistance where ever they might be.
But kids and cell phones also have downsides. For one thing, there's the money issue. Kids are notorious for losing items and cell phones are not cheap. Nor are most cell phone plans or the overage charges when kids get a little too chatty or succumb to the allure of downloading. There's also the back-of-the-mind worry on what the long-term effect radiation waves from a device held so close to the brain might have on developing bodies.
Does you child have a cell phone? If so, how did you decide when they were old enough to have one?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
hall monitor 9-05-2008 @ 7:21PM
I've seen in schools, that the average age right now is about 3rd-4th grade when parents feel completely fine with their child having a phone. There is a chapter in the book "Nation of Wimps" that argues cell phone dependency among the youth is already having detrimental side effects. Personally, I think it's only going to get worse.
Hall Monitor
http://detentionslip.org
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Cell phones ok 9-06-2008 @ 3:42PM
Starting this year my 4th grader and 6th grader both got cell phones. My 6th grader has one because he's started middle school and I thought it would be important to have one. So far it has been well worth the money! The first day of school he was supposed to ride a certain bus but I found out the bus wasn't running for another week. I called the school to tell them I would pick my son up but nobody told him that. He called me right after school to let me know that bus wasn't there and where was I. (I was there waiting for him.) But without the phone we would have had a problem communicating.
My 4th grader has one because she is in elementary school by herself this year and rides the bus home. If school were to get out early the school does not call me. So this way she can call me and let me know she is on her way home so I can leave work to meet her there.
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