I have a 4th grader with no phone. It is not necessary for him. Many of his friends have one. I do not care.

My 4th grade DS has a phone strictly for my convenience and his safety. He sometimes comes home to an empty house after school and I want to be able to talk to him and make sure he got in ok and locked the door behind him. We do not have a landline. I also like that I can track him on his walk home or if he goes to the playground alone. Maybe that's overkill, but it makes me feel better when he's home alone and I'm an hour away. He also likes being able to talk to me or facetime me when he gets home. He is not allowed to text, have social media or use his phone for anything else other than listening to downloaded music (parent approved) when he's coming home on his own.

My 4the grader has a Verizon gizmo watch. He walks/bikes all over the neighborhood on his own (school, piano lessons, sports practice) and also carpools a lot, so it’s great that he can get ahold of us if he needs to do so, and has let him be more independent.

The watch let’s him make and receive calls from 10 pre-selected people and also lets him send simple texts to me in DH.

I have no interest in getting him a real phone any time soon.

Anonymous wrote:My 4th grader has a verizon gizmo. Why? Because I want him to. Mine does call us.

Yip. My 3rd grader has one ans so do a few of his friends. They call each other to make plans and my kid calls me for various reasons (to skip aftercare, when he is ready to get picked up from aftercare, when he arrives at a friends house) he uses his watch phone daily. I also use lt for location tracking. I allow my kid to go about a half mile range from the house on his bike. This allows me to easily find him whenever I need him home or I need him to check in.

I have no idea what musicly is. But whatever it is I dont care. There are no apps you can add to his phone. It is physically impossible.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is using a phone different from tablet or computer.

How is this an answer to the question?

I think They do the same thing. Connect to the world somewhat with a device that can be “personal” no phone for my 7 grader. He gets my loaer” iPhone 6 when we need to seperate but he doesn’t go anywhere on his own much. So no phone required. He has an iPad for homework and social media that he uses and we have set the rule that we can check on.

Anonymous wrote:How is using a phone different from tablet or computer.

How is this an answer to the question?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. If she needs to call us, there is always someone else around whose parents haven't read or don't believe the studies showing the correlation between smart phone use and anxiety/depression in teens.

If you are not with your kid, she shouldn't have to rely on a stranger to call you.

If I’m not with my kid at that age, they better be with a responsible adult. That’s not a “stranger” and it’s how it’s always been done.

Anonymous wrote:No. If she needs to call us, there is always someone else around whose parents haven't read or don't believe the studies showing the correlation between smart phone use and anxiety/depression in teens.

If you are not with your kid, she shouldn't have to rely on a stranger to call you.

How is using a phone different from tablet or computer.

No. If she needs to call us, there is always someone else around whose parents haven't read or don't believe the studies showing the correlation between smart phone use and anxiety/depression in teens.

My 3rd grade DS has a friend who is in 5th grade. He has a phone, has had it for a while now. His friend watches funny or inappropriate YouTube videos or plays fortnite all the time on his phone.

My 4th grader has a verizon gizmo. Why? Because I want him to. Mine does call us.

My DS (now in 6th) told me last year that many 4th & 5th graders on his bus had phones. He is one of the few kids (according to him) this year in 6th that doesn’t have a phone. We plan to get him one in 7th or 8th, but not a smartphone. DS says all the kids watch funny or inappropriate YouTube videos or play fortnite all the time on their phones.

My DD is 10 and does not have a phone. From what I've put together, plenty of her friends have their parents' old devices that they can use on wifi to text, email, play music and troll YouTube. It isn't a necessity yet, so our DD will not be getting one.

My oldest is in 7th. Maybe things are different with boys, but his friends did not seem to have these old phones at home. They had ipads of their own. Anyway, DS got a phone in 6th because he commutes to school on public transportation and he needed to be able to see the bus apps and I wanted to know where he was if he got lost.

Our DD reports that a number of her classmates have a phone of some kind, and I can’t figure out why. Most of the kids that I know of aren’t using the phones to call their parents from this or that location, so what are they doing? Texting friends and going on Musical.ly? If your 10-year-old has a phone, what kind and why? If they do not as a conscious decision by you, why not? My DH is pretty annoyed by her request for a phone, like some of her friends have, and while I’m not annoyed I just can’t see the need.