Anonymous wrote:This reminds me of the parents who feed their kids garbage and say “oh well the kids whose parents feed them real food binge on junk!” Sure maybe some kids without phones do horrible things online. So do a lot more kids with phones. I’d keep your eyes on your own paper.

Anonymous wrote:I kinda agree with OP. My kid got one for her birthday the summer before MS. The majority of kids in 6th had them and even in 4th/5th when she didn’t.
I have same rules as OP.
My kid has 2 friends with no phones and both of them use apps on tablets /laptops to communicate and still access social media.
They’re no safer from the internet than my kid.

Anonymous wrote:My teen has had an iPhone since they were 11, necessitated by sports practice and travel as much as anything. They have social media, but I make them share their logins, texts, calls, and web activity with me so that I can see all activity on Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, etc. They probably have a private browsing situation, but I see most of what happens on their phone. Our deal was that you can have the iPhone, but you can’t have privacy until you are at least 16, and only if you’ve proven you’re ready for it. They are in their mid-teens now and have some friends whose parents still don’t let them have phones. Well, I’m here to tell you that many of your kids are still accessing social media accounts (I can’t tell you how, maybe they have web access somewhere, or an iPad, or even a secret phone), and they are the worst offenders with the things they DM my kid. Not just other boys, but also teen girls who are sending photos that would likely give their parents heart attacks. I'm not here with an answer because I think smartphones and social media are the most significant problems of this generation; just as a comment that withholding a smartphone from a teen isn’t the panacea that some people believe it to be.