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EE warns parents against giving children under 11 a smartphone
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2024
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When they need one. And no, that's not when they say they need one, but when you decide they need one.
I'm planning on having a loaner phone when my kids are teenagers that they can share. It'll stay home unless they leave the house, and they'll be limited to how much time they can spend on it. If they earn my trust, maybe they'll get their own (again, subject to limitations). I don't see a reason why they'd need one before they can drive, but I'll play it by ear.
That said, I refuse to do any sort of tracking on their devices. If I trust them with a phone, I'll respect their privacy with it. If they violate my trust, they lose the phone. If they don't like it, they're free to get their own once they're 18, and not a day before.
Yikes.
Yeah, yikes for being a parent that wants to teach their kids prudence. While they're living in my home, a phone is a privilege, not a right, and they need to prove they can be trusted with it. If they break that trust, they lose the phone.
I'm not giving them a phone because their friends have phones, I'm giving them a phone because I trust them with it and there's a reasonable reason for them to have it. I don't need to know where my child is 24/7, I just need to know that they'll be home at a given time and not break our rules when I'm not around, and I need trust for that to happen, not a tracking device.