[News] At what age should kids have smartphones - if at all?

[Commander]

It’s called parenting. Saying no to your darling cum sprouts. Something lots of parents struggle with nowadays. Not all, but lots.

Sadly this is true. I have friends who seem absolutely terrified of their children. They always take the ‘easy’ way out and never say no. Or they say no and then just don’t stick to it. Sensible, intelligent, nice people as well. I just find it completely bizarre, the ‘easy’ way is actually the much, much harder way in the long run,

Saying that, my kids are going to grow up absolutely entitled as well, despite my best efforts. Kids today just have so much more than we ever did. My 8 year old’s favourite food is steak. I tried ecstasy before I tried steak.

 

[Commander]

Adults are bad enough. A MAJORITY of adults, not even an exaggeration, possibly even an extreme majority, are ADDICTED to the dopamine responses felt by clicking through their numerous apps. Whether it's social media (NSC counts, but mostly TikTok, Reddit, FaceBook, Insta etc), or banking apps (I know people who continually check their investments, banks, pension performance), games or whatever.... it has become an epidemic that is destroying relationships, communities and mental health.

Teaching children this behaviour from a young age is going to lead to a mental health disaster not seen before, and destruction of our social contract.

We should ALL be taught to use our smart phones less, not just children.

Absolutely. I am completely addicted to my phone, no doubt about it. I hold out some hope that the generation of young kids today are going to be a lot better with technology / social media than we are, as they won’t have the kid in the sweatshop mentality as it has been around forever from their point of view. Time will tell though.

 

[Justice]

My business is run from my phone from booking jobs, quoting jobs to invoicing jobs. If you can’t contact the customer quickly they will be off somewhere else. I lost £200 this morning for an hours work because I missed a call and didn’t check the phone for 45 minutes.
Life is also less complicated with a smart phone parking the car, Match day tickets, plane tickets, train tickets immediate banking and fraud alerts.
Old people moaning about kids with smart phones doesn’t make any sense to me in 2024.

 

[pb21]

My business is run from my phone from booking jobs, quoting jobs to invoicing jobs. If you can’t contact the customer quickly they will be off somewhere else. I lost £200 this morning for an hours work because I missed a call and didn’t check the phone for 45 minutes.
Life is also less complicated with a smart phone parking the car, Match day tickets, plane tickets, train tickets immediate banking and fraud alerts.
Old people moaning about kids with smart phones doesn’t make any sense to me in 2024.

12 year old kids don't run businesses or book plane tickets or need immediate alerts about fraudulent pocket money transfers

 

[Bry Nylon]

12 year old kids don't run businesses or book plane tickets or need immediate alerts about fraudulent pocket money transfers

Unless they are running a County Lines operation, obviously.

Then they probably need two.

 

[Half Time Pies]

Phones are more prevalent.

Learning difficulties, attention problems, and neuro diversity is more prevalent.

Any correlation?

You think phones cause Neurodiversity??

 

[Half Time Pies]

This is a tough one, my son has just gone to secondary school in to year 7, most kids at school have a smartphone and they use it to socialise and keep in touch with each other. I had serious misconceptions about him having a phone but we didn't think it was fair on him to be the odd one out. The only thing we can do is keep a close eye on it, I've got all the family controls applied on the apps he uses and he knows that we will be checking his phone regularly. When we have seen something we don't like we have taken more of a coaching approach to try to help him understand the risks and dangers. His school are very good and have a system where the kids put their phones in to a pouch which is locked and can only be opened at the end of the school day.

 

[studio150]

Lost me on the the use of kids rather than children, that's how far I am behind the times.

But in terms of the use of mobiles, it should be down to the parents to decide without just giving in to their little ones.

 

[Pavilionaire]

I think they should raise the minimum age for phone ownership to 9.

 

[jonny.rainbow]

It is absolutely non-sensical that under 15s and under 18s are prevented from watching inappropriate films through the BBFC, but can access far worse content at the age of 8 or 9 when their parent hands them a phone.

The government should pass legislation making it a criminal offence to buy a phone and pass it on to anyone under the age of 16.

Kids of 10 and 11 are no more at risk walking home than they were 50 years ago and none of them owned phones.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

3

And if I didn’t get the latest iPhone I’d scream, cry and stamp my feet until I got one.

 

[GT49er]

I would say give the kids dumb phones, so they can keep in touch, be found, call for help etc. (although even that's not giving children the freedom we had as kids; going to play with my mates in the park, riding our bikes to the next town, trying to sneak into the engine shed to see if we could 'cab' something, whatever. None of that now; Mum and Dad can phone you every minute of every day to see where you are, and what you're up to. Horrible - I'd have hated that!)

As for Smart phones; simple. When they can buy their own and pay the charges, they can have one!

 

[The Clamp]

Funny isn’t it. When I was a teenager I used to scour the NME and Melody Maker for any article or review about my favourite bands.

It’d be great when I even found a small column of news or tour info. Could wait months for anything to come up.

Now I can look at my phone and see what they had for breakfast.

I suppose there’s good and bad in that.

Organising life is a lot more convenient with a smartphone.

Ask for kids having them? I’m not a parent and I’m glad I’m not in the position of having to navigate that particular minefield.

I can see the benefit but I find them terribly anti social and I can’t help but think that it must be having a detrimental effect on them.

But we can’t put the genie back in the bottle.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

I don't think there should be any laws/rules dictating minimum ages and limits on smartphones - or any device. Leave it to the parents to look after their own children.

 

[Wardy's twin]

Smart phones aren't the problem its how they are used which is the issue.

 

[Zeberdi]

Kids of 10 and 11 are no more at risk walking home than they were 50 years ago and none of them owned phones.

I would say give the kids dumb phones, so they can keep in touch, be found, call for help etc. (although even that's not giving children the freedom we had as kids;

I was talking about this with a friend only last week who works in special needs education with 11-16 year olds.

Increasing numbers of parents are using tracking apps - even AirTags - to keep tabs on their children.

You’d think children would react negatively to that but apparently kids actually like their parents knowing where they are every minute of the day.

It’s like we are bringing up a whole generation of kids that are risk adverse to being on their own.

Part of the problem IMO is that as a society we’ve gone “risk assessment” mad - every organised/club/school activity is risk assessed to death. We are literally indoctrinating the younger generation with the belief that society is unsafe for them.

Why Apple AirTags Are Not Ideal for Kids’ Tracking: Exploring Safer Alternatives

Keep your kids safe without compromising their privacy. Find out what alternatives you can use instead of the Apple AirTag for kids and why it's not ideal.

findmykids.org

 

[The Clamp]

Kids want the whole world to be their safe space.

Ironically, online is where some of the worst types of predators lurk.

 

[Justice]

I did keep threading to ‘chip’ my daughter if she misbehaved when she was younger.
You can’t chip people dad

 

[Chicken Run]

Smart phones aren't the problem its how they are used which is the issue.

Guns aren’t the problem it’s the people that use them

 

[Chicken Run]

You go out to dinner now and all you see across the restaurant is couples not talking but eating one handed with phone in the other, what’s the point of going out !!