Reply to other kids' cell phones at sleepovers

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Reply to "other kids' cell phones at sleepovers"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Anyone who believes their child needs a smartphone is a GD idiot.   [/quote]

Define needs. Can my children function without one? Absolutely. Would my children's quality of life be significantly reduced without one? Almost certainly not. Does having a smarphone add a great deal of convenience to my children's life and genuinely make their, my, and our family's lives easier? Absolutely.

Benefits:
- email (and synced family calendar) access
- dropbox/google drive mobile access supports efficient completion of homework and other responsibilities
- ease of navigation so I can more comfortably and safely grant my children independence sooner than I would be willing to without a smartphone
- internet access to look up information whenever it's needed, not whenever they happen to have wi-fi and a computer
- numerous safety features, at least some of which are unavailable on flip phones

Drawbacks and potential risks:
- potential for legal trouble if my child makes exceptionally dumb decisions (sexting or cyber-bullying)
- a small but very high impact possibility they could more easily make the dangerous choice to run off to meet someone they've met online ("more easily" because they will have other internet access anyway)
- loss or breakage of the phone is a more substantial financial loss than loss or breakage of a flip phone

Obviously it's a decision with pros and cons to be considered on both sides. The potential risks are IMO relatively low likelihood but extremely high impact, which means they must be taken seriously. The potential benefits, in our case, were an everyday positive impact on DC's and my lives. Our decision was fairly clear.

Would I have been an idiot for believing that my kids "needed" (i.e. literally couldn't survive without or would have seriously reduced quality of life without) smartphones? Absolutely. That's just overly dramatic

Am I an idiot for thinking my kids need smartphones in the "can and in our case should have them" sense? I certainly don't think so.

Different families will have different risk-benefit analyses and thus may well make different and equally valid decisions.[/quote]

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