What age should a child have their first mobile phone?

18.

They should be made to speak to their friends on the telephone, sat on the stairs where the whole family can hear them, whispering 2 hours conversations to the not to secret boyfriend/girlfriend like we had to. :D
 
Samueltastic said:
Yep same here secondary school at the very earliest.
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Agree with everyone saying this. Also the child should have some appreciation of the value of money, the cost of the phone, and the ability to keep it safe/look after it.

None of which I would have confidence in a 6 year old to understand.

[edit: a camera would be a real concern when giving a phone to a young child. there's no way I'd let a young kid have a webcam, and a camera on their phone is a dangerous thing too. 16+ to use that reasonably safely]
 
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Not until secondary school at the earliest, and certainly not a smart phone.

And it would be a severely limited contract with only the ability to call home.
 
I have a real issue with parents that buy little Johnny 6 year old an iPhone. I don't think that's right. My 10 year old knows how to use a phone and she does when she goes to the park on our estate with her friends. I provided her with literally a disposable phone which has an apparent value of £0. Yes, the mobile phone trade in online companies will not even pay me for it if I send it to them. It's just an old Nokia.
What really annoyed me is a relative that bought her a nicer (still pretty rubbish mind) mobile phone for her birthday. I mean what... ask me permission first you ****.
 
12-13, she's only 8 at the moment but already has friends with mobiles! I think the age where appropriate changes all the time, I know her first phone will be pretty bog standard.
Older child is 15 and saved for 4s using a combination of pocket money and birthday money, she had a 3gs before that. They are extensions of how they socialise now, twitter, facetime, snapchat, without which they are estranged from there friends. They want to have the same as their friends or they are "different"

15 year old girl has friends who have contracted IP5's! Now thats silly, ours has a £10 giffgaff sim which we pay for.

Its a simular question to if they have a TV in their own room, when I was a kid I didn't get one till I brought it aged 18, times change.
 
If it helps, about a month ago, shortly before the schools broke up, I was on a train travelling to London just after school end time. A whole mass of school kids got on, and about 8-10 boys sat near me around about 14 in age. A couple of the kids then started showing pictures of a girl their age to their friends, I gather these were some risque pictures.

So in summary, kids shouldn't have mobiles until at least 16. Unless you want your kids sending out photos of their goods.
 
Pudney said:
If it helps, about a month ago, shortly before the schools broke up, I was on a train travelling to London just after school end time. A whole mass of school kids got on, and about 8-10 boys sat near me around about 14 in age. A couple of the kids then started showing pictures of a girl their age to their friends, I gather these were some risque pictures.

So in summary, kids shouldn't have mobiles until at least 16. Unless you want your kids sending out photos of their goods.
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You should have notified them that looking at that has a nice prison sentence and a lifetime on the sex offenders list.
 
Hyburnate said:
You should have notified them that looking at that has a nice prison sentence and a lifetime on the sex offenders list.
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That did cross my mind at the time. Although I admit I think it's a tad unfair to be labelled a sex offender if you're interested in people your own age.
 
Give them a non-smartphone phone (those really cheap Nokia's, etc) or an old phone with a pixel screen .... The phone should be on PAYG so tell them its their responsibility to keep it topped up in case of emergencies.
 
Orch said:
18.

They should be made to speak to their friends on the telephone, sat on the stairs where the whole family can hear them, whispering 2 hours conversations to the not to secret boyfriend/girlfriend like we had to. :D
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I had a phone line in my room when I was 16 :D

it was for the dial up internet so my parents could still use the house phone but I had a phone I could plug into it :p
 
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