Kids Having Cell Phones... What Do You Think

Here are some excerpts from an article (link below) about kids and cell phones. How do you feel about this issue?


" Although the increased independence that a cell phone might offer a child can be good, it can also be a negative thing. Consider that with a cell phone, your child will simply have another way to communicate with the outside world that you will have little supervision over "

Depending on who you ask, cell phone for kids might be considered:
a necessity
a luxury
a fad
an invasion

http://pediatrics.about.com/od/other...llphones_2.htm

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I think kids should have a restricted cell phone such as a migo with Verizon or Kids Connect with Tmobile where they can use only a certain amount of minutes every month and call only some restricted numbers.

I am a firm believer that kids only do what parents permit them to. If you, as a parent, teach your kids about the dangers inherent in any type of open communication (e-mail, instant messaging, text messaging, etc.) they will be more capable of making good decisions. My daughter has had a cell phone for 3 years now and I have never worried about her using it for "evil" or problematic purposes.

As far as the quote in aepple's post, stating "your child will simply have another way to communicate with the outside world that you will have little supervision over", I say BULL****. If you, as a parent, have little supervision over anything your kids do, then it is your own damn fault and a failing in your parenting!

That is just my opinion, I could be wrong (but I doubt it!).

Originally Posted by Cell_phone_etc

I think kids should have a restricted cell phone such as a migo with Verizon or Kids Connect with Tmobile where they can use only a certain amount of minutes every month and call only some restricted numbers.

I agree, in certain circumstances. For instance, if the child is under age 13 (elementary or middle school), this is a great solution. However, this type of phone is not practical for most teenagers, especially those in high school (take it from the parent of a high school age teen).

I believe most if not all Sprint models have a restricted calling feature. You can program the phone with numbers that are ok to make and receive calls from, and then you lock the phone with an access code. While locked, the phone will only be able to make and receive calls from the numbers on the list. I don't know what the big deal is with the firefly and phones made for kids, Sprint's had this feature for a while now. I wouldn't let my kids run around with an unrestricted phone, but this is a feasible option for giving them a phone and being able to control who they talk to with it.

I think that freshman year is when kids should get a phone if the parents see a need for their child to have one. If you don't have a land line then earlier. I got my first phone junior year. I don't know anything about kids plans but I'm sure that those plans might not be right for everyone. All in all it should be the parents decision, and should be thought over very hard. I know kids who abuse the privilege of a cell phone and their parents don't do anything about it, those kids are douches.

Howdy aepple,

I feel it all depends on the family and how they are handling keping in touch with their kids when their not at home (be that the parents or the kids).

I know families that use cell phones for the kids, but with restrictions, that it's only to call home. So when the home cell rings, whoever is there, knows to answer it, no matter what else is going on at the time.

It's all in what the parents are willing to do to keep in touch or to make themselves reachable, when they can't be with their kids. And of course it depends on the kids and who's paying for the phone and the plan, be it monthly or prepaid.

I think prepaid is the way to go for teens, teach some responsibility, you don't pay for your minutes you don't talk to your friends.

They're great. Once a teenage has a cell phone, it becomes their primary connection to their social life. A lot of parents have a hard time dishing these out, but it can become a great form of parental control. Mess up, and watch your social life disappear in front of you. I also read an article maybe 3 months ago that talked about the link between cell phones and underage smoking. Apparently the underage smoking percentage has dropped dramatically with the further introduction of cell phones to kids. The link is that kids are so busy text messaging that they don't have two free hands to start smoking. Frankly, I don't think anything negative will come from a kid having a cell phone as long as you assume responsibility for it.

Originally Posted by Brad729

I believe most if not all Sprint models have a restricted calling feature. You can program the phone with numbers that are ok to make and receive calls from, and then you lock the phone with an access code. While locked, the phone will only be able to make and receive calls from the numbers on the list. I don't know what the big deal is with the firefly and phones made for kids, Sprint's had this feature for a while now. I wouldn't let my kids run around with an unrestricted phone, but this is a feasible option for giving them a phone and being able to control who they talk to with it.

I agree with Brad (I usually agree with Brad, he always beats me to the threads and steals my post idea !). Kids phones are stupid. Hooray, I have a lime green and bright yellow phone that has 3 buttons on it. Funny enough, this looks just like the one I had as a baby, where all 3 buttons were different colors and each one made a different sound when it was pressed

I was introducted to technology (computer at first) at a very young age. Got my very own, first computer at around 11 years old. The damn thing was $2000 at the time, it was a PC-166 with 32 megs of RAM, 16x CD-ROM drive, and a 2 gig hard drive About a year into it, I began reloading Windows on my own, as it was a piece of crap that kept crashing on me

Anyways, at age 14 I got my first cell phone. I'd have gotten one earlier, but the digital phones that weren't a brick, as well as the newer, cheaper digital rate plans, were just coming out. I got a brand new Nokia 6185i from Clearnet PCS, a brand new phone that the dealer had JUST gotten in. Not even 8 months beforehand, AT&T (or Rogers are they are now known as) was still selling Ni-MH battery powered Ericsson phones that still weighed as much as a small notebook computer.

Anywho, my point is, if you're going to give your child technology, give them something real, not some stupid little toy like that LG Migo phones. All phones can be locked out as Brad pointed out, so if you need to restrict some stuff, then you have the ability to. My guess is that a lot of these parents don't even know how to properly use a cell phone, hence why the Migo is so popular with them, it's a "plug-n-play" phone that they don't need to figure out.

I'm very glad that I was given the oppertunity in my pre-teen and teen years to have access to all the technology that I did. It let me learn about it all, and even to this day I can still apply some of that knowledge to my everyday work. Of course now I've gone to the next step (writing PRLs, seem editing, etc), but none the less, it all began with my first data cable, to which I caused a Fido Nokia 3390 to display "software failure" oooops !

I wouldn't say the Migo is popular. I had one in my store for a good 4 months before it sold. My store decided to sell them only by request at that point, and we have yet to sell another one.

Originally Posted by spum

I wouldn't say the Migo is popular. I had one in my store for a good 4 months before it sold. My store decided to sell them only by request at that point, and we have yet to sell another one.

I assume your store retails for Verizon ? (I assume because your profile says Verizon is your service provider).

That's interesting. One of the 3 large telco's up here in Canada, Telus Mobility, has been selling them like crazy. Very interesting.

Yes, I work for Verizon. Canadians are crazy anyway. That's probably why they're buying crazy phones.

Originally Posted by spum

Yes, I work for Verizon. Canadians are crazy anyway. That's probably why they're buying crazy phones.

lol

when i was 14, i dove in to the darkworld of text messaging, averaging 50 txt a day, and blowing my allowance for text cards. Had a nokia 3310. I was kept under control by my parents using prepaid at that time, and Im glad I was. The thing is i had all the cellphone numbers of all the girls in my class. My parents would raid my inbox when i was asleep. I say the good thing to start your kid, is put him on prepaid and monitor his minutes online. Even with all the restriction features, without the parents taking a role, its useless

Ive had some pretty normal phones, mitsubishi trium, 3390, 6210, 3210, but having a kiddy phone is just plain ridiculous!! I cant imagine my younger sister holding one, i gave my old 3650 to her instead, and shes on tmobile prepaid and i monitor her minutes for my parents. Simple as that