When do kids get a cell phone?

[Anonymous]

It depends on your kids and their activities. For mine, it was Christmas 7th grade. More parents seemed to drop and go and pratices and coaches started reaching out to players individually. Before that, DD had a wifi enabled device for music, YouTube and Snapchat. Insta and TikTok are total time sinks so we wanted to delay those as long as possible. During the break, they had time to learn how to use it and play with it over the holidays, and we had time to discuss what apps we approved.

[Anonymous]

Mine was 13. He needed it in 8th grade so I could keep track of him after school.

[Anonymous]

https://callnerds.com/cell-phone-alternatives-for-kids/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This sounds like a 2010 question. Today My kids don’t use phones for phones. So what age do they get a device to
Communicate with friends, take pictures, listen to music, play games in the car on a long trip, that has a gps so I track them on the bus, and with the ability to call me (they usually text) if practice gets out early or they are “stranded” somewhere....

For us that was 6th grade for my son, and my Dd got a phone in 5th grade 2 years later. Also, We haven’t had a landline since 2012.

Don't brag about that. Every firefighter will tell you homes should have a landline. You'd be surprised at the number of people who know their home address but forget it in a fire. If you call 911 from a landline they can trace the call much faster than if you call from a cell phone.

We've had MagicJack since ~2012. We pay maybe $20 per year plus a 911 fee. It is VOIP, but the base is plugged into the router, and we have satellite phones throughout our house. Very cheap and reliable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This sounds like a 2010 question. Today My kids don’t use phones for phones. So what age do they get a device to
Communicate with friends, take pictures, listen to music, play games in the car on a long trip, that has a gps so I track them on the bus, and with the ability to call me (they usually text) if practice gets out early or they are “stranded” somewhere....

For us that was 6th grade for my son, and my Dd got a phone in 5th grade 2 years later. Also, We haven’t had a landline since 2012.

Don't brag about that. Every firefighter will tell you homes should have a landline. You'd be surprised at the number of people who know their home address but forget it in a fire. If you call 911 from a landline they can trace the call much faster than if you call from a cell phone.

We've had MagicJack since ~2012. We pay maybe $20 per year plus a 911 fee. It is VOIP, but the base is plugged into the router, and we have satellite phones throughout our house. Very cheap and reliable.

That's cool. But do I have to unplug my dial-up modem to make it work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This sounds like a 2010 question. Today My kids don’t use phones for phones. So what age do they get a device to
Communicate with friends, take pictures, listen to music, play games in the car on a long trip, that has a gps so I track them on the bus, and with the ability to call me (they usually text) if practice gets out early or they are “stranded” somewhere....

For us that was 6th grade for my son, and my Dd got a phone in 5th grade 2 years later. Also, We haven’t had a landline since 2012.

Don't brag about that. Every firefighter will tell you homes should have a landline. You'd be surprised at the number of people who know their home address but forget it in a fire. If you call 911 from a landline they can trace the call much faster than if you call from a cell phone.

We've had MagicJack since ~2012. We pay maybe $20 per year plus a 911 fee. It is VOIP, but the base is plugged into the router, and we have satellite phones throughout our house. Very cheap and reliable.

We have magic jack and it can be finicky. If we didn't have cells, I wouldn't rely on it for my home phone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This sounds like a 2010 question. Today My kids don’t use phones for phones. So what age do they get a device to
Communicate with friends, take pictures, listen to music, play games in the car on a long trip, that has a gps so I track them on the bus, and with the ability to call me (they usually text) if practice gets out early or they are “stranded” somewhere....

For us that was 6th grade for my son, and my Dd got a phone in 5th grade 2 years later. Also, We haven’t had a landline since 2012.

Don't brag about that. Every firefighter will tell you homes should have a landline. You'd be surprised at the number of people who know their home address but forget it in a fire. If you call 911 from a landline they can trace the call much faster than if you call from a cell phone.

We've had MagicJack since ~2012. We pay maybe $20 per year plus a 911 fee. It is VOIP, but the base is plugged into the router, and we have satellite phones throughout our house. Very cheap and reliable.

That's cool. But do I have to unplug my dial-up modem to make it work?

Funny, I get your joke, but it works reliably - which really surprised me. We use ours with a Fios modem. Thought it was very infomercial-ish and looked cheap, going on close to 10 years with the same dongle to connect our normal phone line base to the router.

[Anonymous]

End of 7th/Beginning of 8th. Delay it as long as possible or else you’ll be on here complaining about the drama it brings.

[Anonymous]

6th grade--when they started walking a mile to middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone try to start out with like a basic flip phone, essentially calls only and maybe slow texting? It is that not really an option any more?

We started with an apple watch with cellular. DS can reach us while out but less fully-functional than a full smart phone. He doesn't need the distraction temptation of a full smart phone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone try to start out with like a basic flip phone, essentially calls only and maybe slow texting? It is that not really an option any more?

We started with an apple watch with cellular. DS can reach us while out but less fully-functional than a full smart phone. He doesn't need the distraction temptation of a full smart phone.

+1

[Anonymous]

Many kids at our school had them in 4th grade. We caved when Covid began and our 6th grader got hers early (we’re going to wait another year), so she could text friends.

[Anonymous]

11 and holding out. It isn’t brought up though. I really don’t see the need anytime soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am curious at what age is a cell phone justified?

I had one in 1999 when I turned 16, but it was obviously at that point for safety...call us when you get there type of thing. Texting wasn't really a thing yet, and this was a Nokia phone so it was long before smart phones.

Most of my friends still called the landline at my parents house, so I just have no idea what is normal for kids in today's world.

I didn't get one until I was 21, in 2001. I had an old school emergency car phone that lived in my car's glove box for emergencies. I think a flip phone is a good idea to start with. Kids don't need to be using smart phones unsupervised, IMO. They can search the internet on their smart phones and find anything, or snapchat with anyone. Just kick that can down the road.

And your kids are how old?

[Anonymous]

6th for us as well. The thought was DD would be walking to middle school, but that hasn't happened with COVID. On the flip side it's been nice having it anyway so that she can communicate with friends and they don't call me to set up play dates anymore.