ANSWERS: 7
  • I'm thinking 18 yrs old. That's when they can afford to pay the monthly plan. Just kidding. Maybe 11 years old.
  • Good question. I don't know as there should be a pre-set age because it seems the situation differs from one family to the next. I would think that a level of maturity should be a consideration, and if the kid abuses the parent's trust, then yes have the phone blocked so the parent is the only one receiving calls & texts. Everyone wants their kid to be safe, and rightly so - but kids today like to push boundaries more than ever before. I know teachers at our local high school who have had to confiscate phones from kids who refused to stop texting and pay attention in class. One night I was talking to a fellow who told me his daughter ran up a bill of over a thousand dollars. Between constantly calling her friends long distance on the other side of the country(they had recently moved) and exceeding her internet limit was all it took. He took the phone away so she told him that she hated him and called him a prick. I felt sorry for the guy because I once had to fire an employee for running up a $1000. phone bill on personal use while driving one of my trucks. My point is - you can't just fire your daughter or son.
  • I Don't have kids but i would wait until 10 to let them have a phone. I Wouldn't block it,but i would monitor the apps they download.
  • Ultimately it depends on the individual, their circumstances and how responsible they are. I was a freshman in high school, age 15 when I was given my first cell phone. In that day they were relatively in their infancy and thus very basic and to my knowledge, social media wasn't a thing. There were no apps, no fancy features such as for blocking certain activities and they weren't made with full keyboards so texting was obnoxious. As I had few friends and am not much of a conversationalist, my necessity to make calls was scarce and I didn't utilize texting until college. Even then I was forced into it because it was how my math tutor had taken to communicating with me when he was canceling or going to be late to a session. I had looked after it responsibly, having had a single incident all through high school, that was essentially not my fault. Basically, my mom got pissed at me for "neglecting" to give her a call about a particular dilemma and didn't believe that my battery had been dead as just previously, I'd thought my phone lost. I've gone over the text limit we once had in the past decade solely because I didn't know we had it and then one more time because a friend involved me in a group text. Nowadays it would be more difficult for a teenager to be responsible with a cellphone given how versatile they've become so it's all the more important to consider circumstances such as how many friends they have and how active they are in social media and would most certainly consider the blocking option if there are emergency necessities to get them a phone.
  • Thank you everyone! Thinking of getting my daughter a cell phone limited to calling and texting us for the summer. She'll be at a new summer camp and I want us to be able to checkin with each other.
  • How old is your daughter? I believe there are cellphones actually designed for children that have just TWO buttons so that it can literally do nothing but call either home or 911. If she's older, like in her teens, then I'd say go for a basic phone that is a fossil from my day, like a Razor the capabilities of which are limited to the essentials. A Razor was the last phone I owned that wasn't made with a full keyboard, possibly the last model designed without one. It does have texting capability but it's obnoxious so if she's anything like me, it won't interest her.
  • I had my first one at 15.

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