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Yes a few of my kids class mates ( grad 3 to 5 ) have been getting smartphones and my kids are wondering why they cant have one too, as I mandated the rule that no child of mine gets a smartphone until they start their first year of high school.
I run a pretty tight leash on the availability to, devices, laptops and their PS/XBox during the school week, as they have, art, tennis, piano classes, swimming squad and homework taking up most of the after school free time and I allow them to let their hair down on the weekends.
I don't find that they need a smart phone as yet and try pretty hard to keep my kids active with 'other' activities to keep them motivated etc.
So when did you allow your children full access to a social media equipped smartphone?
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30-06-2021, 12:27 PM #1
How old should our kids be to have their own smart phone?
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30-06-2021, 12:50 PM #2
One at 13 and one at 12. They were monitored for a while in terms of who and what they were messaging. Online schooling would be impossible without them and the lockdown makes them necessary for socialising.
In terms of content on the internet we are quite easy with them.
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30-06-2021, 01:00 PM #3
Is there an app that rewards behavior?
Go 5 hours without checking your phone get 20 mins unfettered age appropriate use
Go 1 hour without checking your phone get 2 mins unfettered age appropriate use
?
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30-06-2021, 01:02 PM #4
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30-06-2021, 01:10 PM #5
I spoiled mine terribly and shes only 7 so i wont bother going into details except that im paying the price, every time we sit down be it a bus / mtr or boat she goes im bored and sticks her hand out for a electronic device or keeps pestering me until i give up and give her something, she knows how to push my buttons, I'm DOOMED. LOL
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30-06-2021, 01:12 PM #6
Thank goodness smartphones (and therefore dick pics) weren't a thing when I was in high school
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30-06-2021, 01:15 PM #7
Delay as long as possible. As soon as a kid gets a smartphone their ability to concentrate disappears.
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30-06-2021, 01:48 PM #8
You ever wonder what would the world be like if Steve Job's mom says no computer until you are XX years old. I introduce it to mine as young as possible and encourage him to learn the functions etc of the device. But we keep a very tight leash, no gaming on weekdays, Sat is all you can play day. I download only games that I can see an educational angle, i.e. minecraft=digital lego, etc etc. he plays roblox with his cousin with zoom on so there is still human verbal interaction. I also download multi player games which i can play with/ against him to keep the human interaction, and also important tool to bond with him
I encourage him to do coding on roblox now to build his own world, help him understand the coding etc. My philosophy is that is not the device, its how you use it
To give you a little context, I'm one of those lucky kids who had a PC/apple at a very young age. Did so much gaming that my mom tore my PC up and I had to learn how to rebuild them quietly and play it when she is not around, so I picked up building PC skill. Then I couldn't beat the games so I tried to hack them and I picked up coding. So I see digital equipment from a very different angle
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30-06-2021, 01:52 PM #9
We didn't even have the Internet until my daughter was 9, first iPhone came out the year she graduated. Meaning all the time I was with her, I was NOT checking a phone. I didn't even get a smart phone until 2017.
Glad it was not an issue for me.
I think it totally depends on the child, I probably would have let my daughter have one in middle school (so around 12 or so). She was pretty responsible. My brother? Parents would never have trusted him with one...
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30-06-2021, 02:02 PM #10
Originally Posted by East_coast:
