My 11 yr old 6th grade girls have been complaining since they were 8 yrs old that everyone has a phone except for them. This is definitely the case now and I am still holding out. There is an alternative solution to every reason parents say they give them a phone early. My daughters chat with me during the day using Google Chat on their school laptop and WiFi. They wanted to chat with their friends who have iPhones? They have MacBooks and iPads at home and just gave their friends their iCloud account email address and they can add that to the group chats or text them individually using that...works just like having a number. I'm holding our until 8th grade. My 8th grade son has one. My girls have been at events specifically set up for kids to mingle and socialize and all the other girls are on their phones recording TikTok's and scrolling the whole time. Our school had to ban phones at recess because no one played anymore they jut sat and stared at phones. I ban social media but my son has shown me th many ways he gets around the controls and still accessing them. Definitely do your best to block Quora, Redditt, Discord and Twitter if you can to avoid the adult and porn content.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love that DMV area 6th graders wanting iPhones have discovered DCUM parenting forums, where they pretend to be parents whose children attend schools where most students have iPhones.

I don’t care who has a phone my 6th grader has an iPhone because I have a fear of not knowing where she is. This is the first year where she would call at school to ask if she could go over her friend’s house.

So you are willing to selfishly expose your child to all manner of online toxicity because of your unregulated mental health problem?

?? Or maybe PP knows her kid? As a 12 year old, I wouldn't engage in online toxicity myself because it was toxic? My kid is the same way. He already knows its toxic, and he's got better things to do with his life. Not every kid lacks self-control.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love that DMV area 6th graders wanting iPhones have discovered DCUM parenting forums, where they pretend to be parents whose children attend schools where most students have iPhones.

I don’t care who has a phone my 6th grader has an iPhone because I have a fear of not knowing where she is. This is the first year where she would call at school to ask if she could go over her friend’s house.

So you are willing to selfishly expose your child to all manner of online toxicity because of your unregulated mental health problem?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know why you people give kids phones. They are so bad for them.

We waited till 7th. Our kids were among the last in their grades to get a phone. We did not regret it.

No phone til 9th. Well after the middle school drama has been a good model for my kids vs. my same age nieces and nephews tech enabled experience those same years.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know why you people give kids phones. They are so bad for them.

We waited till 7th. Our kids were among the last in their grades to get a phone. We did not regret it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone go through the pros/cons of an apple watch vs. an old (locked down - few apps on it, parental controls enabled) iPhone vs. nothing at all for a 12 yo 7th grade girl?

DD is more interested in an applewatch right now than a phone per se. I'm not sure why. Maybe they are starting to be "cool"? Or they aren't made to be put away at school like a phone is? I wonder whether the apple watch would actually be more distracting because it's on the wrist and ever-present.

The main use of a phone/watch would be to keep in touch when she's out in the neighborhood, at friends, or taking public transport to activities.

Pro:
Less expensive
Hard to lose

Con:
Texting can be more difficult due to small screen
Ours didn’t get great reception for calls


Interestingly I have found that my kid likes to call his friends. I wasn’t expecting that

Adding to pro: no games, no social media apps, I can set school time mode for it, water resistant (I have a swimmer). My kid also surprisingly calls friends much more than my 15 year old with an actual phone

Con: sometimes drops service so we have to restart, find my function not as precise.

More cumbersome to text but I don’t see that as a con, and more of a pro because I think this is why he actually calls his friends more often.

We chose this over a flip phone or gizmo because of apple message compatibility. Overall, very happy with this choice. I think he will get an SE in 7th or 8th grade.

Anonymous wrote:I love that DMV area 6th graders wanting iPhones have discovered DCUM parenting forums, where they pretend to be parents whose children attend schools where most students have iPhones.

I don’t care who has a phone my 6th grader has an iPhone because I have a fear of not knowing where she is. This is the first year where she would call at school to ask if she could go over her friend’s house.

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone go through the pros/cons of an apple watch vs. an old (locked down - few apps on it, parental controls enabled) iPhone vs. nothing at all for a 12 yo 7th grade girl?

DD is more interested in an applewatch right now than a phone per se. I'm not sure why. Maybe they are starting to be "cool"? Or they aren't made to be put away at school like a phone is? I wonder whether the apple watch would actually be more distracting because it's on the wrist and ever-present.

The main use of a phone/watch would be to keep in touch when she's out in the neighborhood, at friends, or taking public transport to activities.

Pro:
Less expensive
Hard to lose

Con:
Texting can be more difficult due to small screen
Ours didn’t get great reception for calls


Interestingly I have found that my kid likes to call his friends. I wasn’t expecting that

I don’t know why you people give kids phones. They are so bad for them.

We use the Apple Watch for DC age 11. They don’t lose it bc they wear it. They can text for pickup times/locations or if separated. They are not using it for much more than that. They do enjoy keeping track of steps.

Can anyone go through the pros/cons of an apple watch vs. an old (locked down - few apps on it, parental controls enabled) iPhone vs. nothing at all for a 12 yo 7th grade girl?

DD is more interested in an applewatch right now than a phone per se. I'm not sure why. Maybe they are starting to be "cool"? Or they aren't made to be put away at school like a phone is? I wonder whether the apple watch would actually be more distracting because it's on the wrist and ever-present.

The main use of a phone/watch would be to keep in touch when she's out in the neighborhood, at friends, or taking public transport to activities.

Anonymous wrote:How on earth do you disable a phone in a way that they can’t figure out how to enable it back?

Do you mean an iPhone? You can set it up under family as a child’s phone and then you control what they have access to and for how long. For instance if you want them to be able to text only an hour a day, or only certain people like mom and dad, you can set that up. Parents have a passcode and the kid needs to
Figure out the code to change the controls.