Parents who waited on giving phones, tell me your ways

[Anonymous]

Posted above as a parent of a sixth grader with an iPad/watch combo. What also helped...her school HSA (Catholic version of PTA) did a middle school and parent education on social media with this group: https://www.socialmediasafety.org/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwt-OwBhBnEiwAgwzrUkL0xo5IhWYBaBDUHb7FtJeK_54qEl6B_TLMiBB-8jK-ez9zE39djBoCHHMQAvD_BwE

I live in Chicago and there was a high profile suicide here at the Latin School, which is a big exclusive private school here. The kid was cyberbullied by his basketball team. Our school's HSA reached out the parents of that kid who started a non-profit called Buckets over Bullying, who recommended the group linked above.

The guy who runs that group had his son in the ICU following a social media "challenge" that involved running up and punching random kids in the head. They did a session for the kids during school and another one for parents at night (where they showed the video of his kid getting hurt; they didn't show the kids this). My daughter found this account really powerful which has gone a long way in selling no social media.

[Anonymous]

Here’s how. Get a dumb phone for emergencies. Use an old iPhone as a WiFi only device that stays in the house for group chats. Remove all other apps from it. This works great and we plan to stick with it as long as possible. Our son actually thanked us for it the other day, as many (not all) of his friends turned into zombie a-h0les when they got phones.

[Anonymous]

My SIL's "kids" are all young adults, early 20s, what they thiink is a good age to be allowed to socialize on phones. Their answers were, high school, high school and NEVER. I had them explain their reasoning to my kids. I can't say my kids are thrilled but their cousins opinions carried a lot of weight for them.

[Anonymous]

We waited till 9th grade. It was not easy. Just say No. You are the parent.

[Anonymous]

I shared my phone, which was good for me too. Let my kid use it when he was out and about.

Other than that, I just did it. It was fine. Made it to late 8th grade. No social media allowed.

[Anonymous]

DS has an old hand me down phone that is totally locked down and can only text or call. He has a 15 minute daily limit on texting. He's in 7th.
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