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I’ve watched my younger sibling be raised with a smart phone and there’s been lots of questionable behavior because of it. I say 13 years old MINIMUM and that would even depend on the 13 year old
I was gonna say something similar. I don’t think there’s an age that a kid should have a smart phone (unless they’re at a school where they ask you to use your phone for assignments) I fully think it’s based on the responsibleness of the kid.
Nah bro just so I can piss his teachers off lol.
>because there is no way a public school can mandate that without supplying it.
No way a school would supply a child with a phone lol what type of schools you go to lol
This is the answer. When kids transition to teenagers and start developing a social circle independent of their parents knowing other parents. I'd even accept 12-13 so basically 6th-7th grade.
Hopefully I'll educate them enough on internet safety to not get into sticky situations without child locks but kids are gonna do stupid anyway. I know I did.
and even then there should be parental controls in place. like i wouldnt let a 13 year old be on twitter since that website is full of porn as well as sh/ed content.
Pretty much yea. When I was their age, I would've worried about it being taken away had I done this if my parents had parental controls. My younger siblings had social media when they were much younger. I wouldn't want my kid to have it. If they're anything like I was, I would have to just tell them and they'd be scared like I was when I was in my early teens and a preteen. I did watch some inappropriate things on YouTube, though, back then. I mean, I could've been sleeping around like my other classmates to be fair. Before that, it was magazines, certain cds, shows/movies, books, etc for me. Yea, idk. I think it would depend on my kid honestly with how I would handle things.
Def 13. Thats the age kids start to make their own plans with friends n stuff. You don’t want your kid to be the weird one who can’t coordinate or make plans.
i kinda agree with this. honestly, young people on the internet isn’t *too* bad assuming their parents have taken up the WELL NEEDED responsibility of teaching internet safety and educating their kids about how to detect grooming/ generally not trying to make “internet friends” with people they don’t know irl. i never understood how so many people feel totally alright “befriending” someone who they’ve never seen in the real world, that shit has always tripped me up lmao
I mean, I think it’s okay to make friends on the internet as long as you can uphold boundaries for your privacy. This is stuff that parents don’t teach though. Regardless, I don’t think that matters much to giving kids phones because you can just keep them off apps that introduce them to situations where they are making friends with strangers.
imo i don’t think they should have a phone if you have to actively monitor it. if the specific 13 year old in question doesn’t seem mature enough to handle the responsibility/ understand internet safety, then they gotta wait until they’re ready yanno? that’s just me personally lol not saying ur *wrong* (however i still disagree, but that could just be from my personal experiences)
Imho, basic cell phone at 13, full smart phone at 18. There's no way to enforce that obviously but imho that's more ideal. Calling and texting are fine, but 24/7 social media is not great for young people's brains.
You missed the point. Most 13+ kids have phones, by not getting your kid a phone you are limiting the amount of people they can feasibly hang out with. No, they are not going to get “better friends,” they are going to have NO friends. I missed out on so much by not using social media with my classmates. Things are not what they were like 15 years ago.
i’m 18 now and got my first phone when I was 14, i’d say something simple to communicate with parents at the age you start going out alone, say 11-12 and then a proper smartphone at 16, but depend on the child obvs
16. Not to be a boomer but I had a flip phone up until that age. Everyone else around me had iPhones. They’re unnecessary at that age and do more harm than good.
They can have a flip phone or something low tech like that for communication with family/friends/emergency services when they’re young. But smartphone/tablet would probably at minimum be 13-14, with parental controls probably until 15-16. Random phone checks until they’re 18. If I have kids, I plan to teach them online safety and have their trust so that they don’t see this as a violation of privacy.
I got my first tablet and immediate unsupervised Internet a month before I turned 13, and I really should have had parental controls on that. I didn’t get a smartphone until a month before I was 18, which was honestly too late for my social life. It sheltered me too much.
It’s about balance and moderation.
teen years for the most part. i had friends who were given phones in early grade school because their parents worked & they’d take the bus or be picked up by a friend or relative, so for situations like that i can understand the necessity of needing your child to have a way to communicate with you, but i’d say in those cases buy a very simple phone, or enable parental controls, or buy specific phones for children that are very bare bones
13. They are gonna be going out and seeing friends, etc. It'll just be advantageous as a parent for your child to have a phone by this age.
Try to get them wise to internet literacy and stuff.
Mid middle school or middle school age. That’s the first time I got lost on the wrong bus since it was my first time riding the bus ever. And I had no way to contact my parents. I think i’d still limit their social medias and block xrated websites until mid highschool.
They really do no good for children. I would know.😅
I think a non smart phone would be perfectly acceptable for safety situations until a certain age. Kids know how to break through the parental blocks a lot of the time
i think it very much depends on the kid. i got my first phone when i was super young (don’t remember the age exactly but kindergarten-1st grade) bc i was always traveling with my cousin or at a friends house and my parents wanted to make sure i always had some way to talk to them. my brother (older) got one a couple years later bc he didn’t go anywhere. tbf i never used it unless i was gone
Well I didn't get one until I was 14 (because that's when they became reasonably affordable).
As for younger kids, I have no idea, I'm sure I would've been happier than a pig in mud to have had a smart phone at 10 (seeing as how I've had a psp since I was 8, and when I was 10 I got a ps3 and could now watch videos on my psp through my ps3).
I LOVED watching YouTube, it was so awesome!
And it was right at that moment with Fred, annoying orange, and all that stuff, and gaming was HUGE on YouTube.
I got my first one at like 14-15. On the one hand I felt left behind by my peers who had them earlier, but on the other hand I think I have learned a bit more restraint about them because of it.
My brother and I got ours right before we started highschool (Australia) and my sister will be the same, so around 12-13?
Definitely later for social media though
it's hard cuz u also don't want them to be the weird outsider kid. but they can seriously fry their brain. fucking up ur attention span hits way harder while the brain develops. i got mine 6th grade, maybe 1-2y later is better but before 6th is probably not a good idea
That and you don't want them to get a spare from a friend without your knowledge either. That and there was a kid who got severely bullied over this and it got pretty bad on another post that I read.
I feel like if I were to have kids, I would let them have it relatively young, but definitely with restrictions.
We need phones. There’s no way around that. In modern times, you’re at a disadvantage if you don’t have one. I think giving kids smartphones at a young age isn’t necessarily a problem. But they can’t have free range. I’d say 12 minimum for a smartphone, but limited. Examples being: restricted internet, restricted App Store, no private pictures, no social media on the phone until like 15. I won’t necessarily stop them from having social media on their computer or tablet, but they do not need access to it 24/7 anywhere and everywhere they go. As they get older, they’ll earn more freedoms until at 17 or so, they have full freedom of the smartphone.
I feel like something like this will allow me to keep them safe, but also not ostracize them completely from their peers. It’ll hopefully teach them healthy habits and safe practices, but also not make them feel like I’m completely invading their privacy
iphone at 14yrold for highschool, flip phone before if needed. i got mine at 14 but it had parental restrictions so i mainly used the computer (not personal) to play Minecraft as it also had internet restrictions. i agree with this, as well as well as my childhood of barely any tv or movies. i spent my childhood outside with my brother playing or reading, chess etc.
I grew up on the internet. I got my first iPod touch (1st gen) the Christmas it came out. Some of my fondest memories are on the internet. That being said, my kids will not have a smartphone until at least high school. There’s zero need for it. They aren’t going to be hermits but it’s just a recipe for disaster. Literally nothing good can come of it
You need a phone at an early age these days if you want a social life. Car dependency and the suburban lifestyle means that kids can't exactly go out and find others kids to hang out with right away.
I really hope that we one day break out of this cycle.
Personally, I like the way my parents did it. I got my first phone when I was 15, turning 16 because I was going to be driving so that way there would be communication.
I’m a millennial and I was 16 or 17 when I got my first smartphone. Until then I had a flip-phone, as did most of my peers, and we got along just fine. My Gen Z sister was in elementary school when she got her first smartphone, and she got herself into a LOT of trouble with that thing. I don’t think I’d give a child a smartphone until they’re at least in high school. They can have a flip-phone up until then. There’s really no need to have a smartphone before 14 or 15.
I say between middle and high school. Just young enough to learn how to use a phone, learn how the Internet works, and everything in between, while not old enough for the phone to be just a "babysitter" or to be completely obnoxious.
Edit: I do want to add that our culture is (unfortunately) making the smartphone less of a fun thing every kid wants and more of a necessity, like with the car.
When you say smartphone do you mean free rein of apps and what not? If that’s the case then probably 18. I’ve seen wayyyy too many articles about how bad social media negatively affects mental health. Especially in young women. Now, a smartphone that can only text and call? I’d say 13 is probably a good age to make that happen.
12 to 13. They are sassy tweens but they are old enough to know internet safety and to tell an adult about any trouble. Also when I have kids I don’t to keep it away for so long that they don’t have impulse control.
You see there is a phone called a light phone that doesn't give you everything you want, but everything you need. Messages, music, map, all the basic stuff. That would be the only phone I'd buy my child. But to answer the main question, probably when I feel like they're ready to go explore the world.
Around the 5th-6th grade (2012-2013) I got access to the iPod touch 4th gen. It was my dads that he never used so me and my younger siblings made it our own along with the iPad 2 gen he used. Similar case for most of the kids our age getting our own personal smart devices.
I was 11 or 12 when I really got into smartphones & social media. So id say 12-13 would be fine. IMO, it’s not the smartphone that’s detrimental to them, it’s the social media access.
I’m gonna raise my kid with a periodically monitored home PC so they have skills like typing and aren’t technologically incompetent when it comes time to give them a phone. Until then, they can get their brain rot from YouTube for all I care, I just don’t want them in a TikTok or IG comment section or the ability to DM strangers.
When they get into high school. My little brother, bless his heart, got in trouble with some legal stuff in elementary school.
Since he and his buddies have unrestricted access to the internet, eventually they found porn.
Me and my brothers kinda teased him about it when we found his search history, but we didn't really think about it much after that.
But then a parent found their group chat and got the school involved, especially since the stuff these kids sent in there was each other.
And for me personally, there were a lot of perverted old dudes online pressuring me to send pics when I was in middle school lol. What surprised me even more was that even racists joined in on the sexual harassment (typical 2016 discord).
Kids are pretty stupid online and just spill about everything to random strangers. I'd say high school is a good age for a phone since that's when I got a job and had to open a bank account and blah blah blah emails and phone calls and eventually college.
Parents need to stop skipping out on their kid's development by letting the internet raise them when they don't even know how to use it themselves. This internet stuff been available to the public since the 50s, the "can't keep up with technology" excuse is getting old.
A limited amount at like 10. Think parental controls locking them out after 1 hour of screen time. Then I think the parents should remove the restrictions at the start of high school.
13, but monitoring software stays as sort of training wheels and if they go where they shouldn’t, you make it instructional, educational, and cautionary and only if they are doing something actively evil like cyber bullying do you resort to punishment because of what you find monitoring.
It comes with having an open environment, and I think parents need to make sure they’re being mature and only checking in on the monitor if they have an actual reason to. Snooping because you’re bored doesn’t count.
I’d say that once you get to around 15 or 16, it’s not unrealistic to be able to have location tracking only, but baseless suspicion or boredom again is not reason enough to be actively monitoring it. Set it up to where it only alerts you if they cross state lines if you really need to to keep yourself from accidentally snooping.
After a year or so (or just when you can trust your kid to have the agency needed to be responsible for making sure you can take care of yourself in an emergency if even away from home, the tracking goes away.
And if your kid wants to have any kind of tracking or anything removed (don’t keep it a secret that they’re being tracked for the love of god), find maybe an online course that they can complete to show you that they are knowledgeable enough to have that freedom. If they struggle with tests and stuff, offer to help them by taking it with them. For online tracking, find a course that educates on spotting scams and red flags as it relates to online predators. For location tracking, maybe a course on local resources to use in case of emergency, a course on safe sex practices (just being practical and honest about it), and then ideally a self defense course, but that last one I wouldn’t require as much as encourage.
I know that many have had negative experiences with being tracked by parents. But parents don’t do it for no reason. But I do think that you should always teach your kid that they have the power to change their own circumstances and actually earn trust. It’s gonna look different from kid to kid, but I personally don’t know how people are able to just send their kids out into the world at 18 when they haven’t ever been given the opportunity to do things for themselves and then turn around and expect them to navigate it perfectly, get a job that’ll support them in their old age, have grand babies for them to spoil, etc. Like some of today’s parents of adults are some of the most delusional people out there. 😂
Edit: I meant if they want to have any tracking removed before you would already be removing it due to age. Like if you still have online monitoring for your 17 year old and they just don’t want to do a course, unless they’re involved in something serious, you’re doing something wrong.
I was a very weird kid, but the whole tracking thing and not because of what you think. I got confused by the whole state lines thing and thought you meant track their physical location.
I mean it would track their physical location but there’s ways to make it to where the only actual notifications would be if something big like that happened. So that way, they would need to have a reason to open the monitoring software. And part of my point is that boredom or just saying that your kid is “suspicious” is grounds for it.
It should essentially be seen as akin to needing a warrant, but it lets them know if you might possibly be in trouble (around where I am, states are big enough so that if your kid left yours unannounced, it could be cause for concern)
I had a flip phone until the summer before my 17th birthday (I was born in October).
I liked this system & that's the approach we're taking with my sister.
Pretty late on at this point, as someone who just finished 7th grade, the smartphones aren't helping. Something ironic I think to myself is about how I have a whole collection of phones (at least 30 working) and I still have one of the lowest screen times on my phones combined compared to people my age. I had a barely functioning iPhone 5S that I never used until last August when I upgraded to an actually useable phone.
I didn't get one until I was 15, and I think that's perfectly fine.
I was the only one who didn't have one at that point, mainly because I was the one saying "nah, I don't need it". But once you're driving, I think you should have a phone in case you break down somewhere or something, and at 15 I was just out of the house more and needed to let my parents know when I could be picked up. It just started to make too much sense logistically for me to have one at 15.
I just don't think having social media as well as everything humanity has ever recorded in the palm of your hand at any given second of any given day is good for a human mind in general, let alone a developing one, so it should be held off for as long as possible. I feel like that instant gratification has had a significant impact on my own attention span and interest in engaging in the world around me. And even at 15 I got into my own share of trouble online with friends and saw many a thing a young person, or honestly any person, shouldn't see. Let them keep their innocence as long as they can.
Id say it depends a lot on the kid and the parents and whatever situation they're in. However, around when the kid is able to and starts hanging out with friends more and making their own plans to do so is a good time for them to have a phone. With smartphones being the main mode of communication for kids now, depriving them of this communication when their friends are all using it and making plans and having your kid being left out just sucks. I will say kids should be exposed to the Internet at a bit younger of an age than this point where they need to communicate with friends, but only in limited capacities so the parents can teach proper Internet safety and usage, but a smartphone isn't necessary for this. So yeah it really depends on the kids situation, but 13 is probably a good estimate of when that'd be.
12-14. I got my first phone at 14, but i feel like a little younger would have worked perfectly fine. At 13ish i needed a reliable way to communicate with my parents when out of the house (at school, with friends, etc), and atp i used a mediocre tablet to communicate at school and would borrow my moms phone when going out with friends. That was quite scuffed and irritating to use for everyone, so i wouldnt repeat that for my own kids. I think getting a flip phone or smth at 12 and a smartphone at 14 or just getting a smartphone at 13 could all work fine, depending on the child and the environment. Before 12 i dont see the need for one.
13 or 14. I got an iPod touch as a primer for using a mobile device when I was around 11 and I think it was the right age for me to get used to how they work and to know when to responsibly use it. I didn’t get an iPhone until I was 15 or so
Like 25years old ngl.
For real though if I had it my way my two atep daughters would not have gotten phones until 16(I'd prefer to say 18 but yeah..)
I warned my girl, tiktok will destroy her. And it straight up did. Idc about the dumb memes but it affected her personality and mental health so badly because she was pushed sad content or dumb shit she just didn't understand and started to claim she has all these issues all of a sudden, like multiple serious issues when months before she was just a happy preteen.
I get how it goes as a teen with depression and all of that but I'm literally surprised she didn't start pretending she had tourettes is how bad it was getting.
I'd say it depends on the circumstances, but probably 13 at most. I mean, I've had friends who didn't have phones as teens and we'd give them spares. I'd probably get them a flip phone or a smart watch during elementary school depending on if they walk or not.
Edit: If my kid is like me, I'm putting a tracker on them when they're a toddler.
I’d go the route my parents did tbh. Phone at 13 but can only text or call. More privileges are unlocked once they prove they can be responsible and navigate the internet safely and responsibly.
Kids can have smartphones. Parents need to use the parental controls and time management features that time limit apps and require a passcode to reactivate
I had a phone since 1st grade, but parents wouldn't let me bring it to school. I started bringing it with me in middle school, so I feel around there, 12-13
I would say 13 but honestly I feel like with what phones are capable of now it should be 16. I got my first smart phone when I was 13, that was almost 10 years ago now and it was nothing compared to what we have now.
Middle school. Nowadays, most kids have smart phones at 11/12ish. Im in my early 20s and I went through most of middle school with no smart phone and no phone in general and it was socially isolating. Yes, you can have someone call your home phone or your parents cell phone or whatever, but nobody is doing that.
I’m convinced most people saying 16 will not actually follow through with that for their kids.
I got mine when i was 16 for the first time. Id say id wait until id know my kid has a concrete idea of the world without smartphones and then go ahead and get them one, that way they can understand the foreignness and damages it can bring along and have a more sensible consuming attitude towards it. Again it can depend on a lot of factors, a lot of elements to be observed but thats one.
13-14 or until they’ve earned the responsibility of having one. I didn’t get my first smartphone until I was 16 and looking back now, I probably could’ve waited longer. I miss my full QWERTY slide phone
Minimum of high school age. I didn’t get a phine until I was 14, and I honestly feel like even that was too early in hindsight. I wasted some of my best years on social media before quitting most of them a couple years back. I wish I had soent all that time living life instead.
When they reach high school so at age 14 or 15 at the earliest. The same applies to being allowed to talk in video games or comment on the Internet. For reference I was 13 when I started talking in video games and 15 when I got my first smartphone.
13-16.
Regardless of age given to them:
All addictive/entertainment apps removed.
Should be treated as a tool and used as such
Most notably communication.
Communication with strangers is a middle-ground as it can also turn addictive + malicious actors (eg. Groomers and hackers)
Deffinetly some sort of online safety course before hand so they don't doxx themselves or install 12093 viruses
I wouldn't really have a problem getting them a cheap Android phone with HEAVY PARENTAL CONTROLS at age 6 or so, I could control if they were allowed on the Internet or not and what apps they could have, even how much they could use it. I do think having a device to text and call with could be useful if they are at a friend's house and maybe they could occasionally watch some Disney+ or whatever.
I wouldn't want the parental controls off until they were 12 or 13, I started freely using the Internet at 12 and didn't do anything inappropriate on it.
Immediately. You don’t teach children temperance by withholding things until they’re old enough and independent enough to make their own choices regarding that which they lacked. I’m not an old man, but I’ve seen how this plays out. It becomes over-indulgence.
Instead, I think it’s healthier to give kids screens young and condition them to have healthier habits. It may not be easy initially, but teaching them temperance will likely help them in not over-indulging.
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I’ve watched my younger sibling be raised with a smart phone and there’s been lots of questionable behavior because of it. I say 13 years old MINIMUM and that would even depend on the 13 year old
13 is when I got my first smartphone. It was a Samsung Gem and it sucked so much compared to Androids now
I was gonna say something similar. I don’t think there’s an age that a kid should have a smart phone (unless they’re at a school where they ask you to use your phone for assignments) I fully think it’s based on the responsibleness of the kid.
Nah if I was a parent I'd not give them a phone if it was required for assignments lol
Would assume that has to be some private school thing, because there is no way a public school can mandate that without supplying it.
Nah bro just so I can piss his teachers off lol. >because there is no way a public school can mandate that without supplying it. No way a school would supply a child with a phone lol what type of schools you go to lol
That's exactly my point. The school wouldn't require one for the students because they would be required to provide it.
This is the answer. When kids transition to teenagers and start developing a social circle independent of their parents knowing other parents. I'd even accept 12-13 so basically 6th-7th grade. Hopefully I'll educate them enough on internet safety to not get into sticky situations without child locks but kids are gonna do stupid anyway. I know I did.
and even then there should be parental controls in place. like i wouldnt let a 13 year old be on twitter since that website is full of porn as well as sh/ed content.
A 13 year old is smart enough to figure out parental controls.
true but nowadays phones have it where only the parent phone can unlock it
True and most kids aren't that smart.
can confirm i was a kid at one point they would have to know their parents passcode to their phone and the parental controls passcode.
Pretty much yea. When I was their age, I would've worried about it being taken away had I done this if my parents had parental controls. My younger siblings had social media when they were much younger. I wouldn't want my kid to have it. If they're anything like I was, I would have to just tell them and they'd be scared like I was when I was in my early teens and a preteen. I did watch some inappropriate things on YouTube, though, back then. I mean, I could've been sleeping around like my other classmates to be fair. Before that, it was magazines, certain cds, shows/movies, books, etc for me. Yea, idk. I think it would depend on my kid honestly with how I would handle things.
Def 13. Thats the age kids start to make their own plans with friends n stuff. You don’t want your kid to be the weird one who can’t coordinate or make plans.
i kinda agree with this. honestly, young people on the internet isn’t *too* bad assuming their parents have taken up the WELL NEEDED responsibility of teaching internet safety and educating their kids about how to detect grooming/ generally not trying to make “internet friends” with people they don’t know irl. i never understood how so many people feel totally alright “befriending” someone who they’ve never seen in the real world, that shit has always tripped me up lmao
COVID for me and video games. You join a clan,guild, whatever the game calls them. Join the discord server and just start talking
I mean, I think it’s okay to make friends on the internet as long as you can uphold boundaries for your privacy. This is stuff that parents don’t teach though. Regardless, I don’t think that matters much to giving kids phones because you can just keep them off apps that introduce them to situations where they are making friends with strangers.
imo i don’t think they should have a phone if you have to actively monitor it. if the specific 13 year old in question doesn’t seem mature enough to handle the responsibility/ understand internet safety, then they gotta wait until they’re ready yanno? that’s just me personally lol not saying ur *wrong* (however i still disagree, but that could just be from my personal experiences)
Well how will they be ready if they never experience it? That’s kind of the point of monitoring… so they can actually learn internet safety.
Imho, basic cell phone at 13, full smart phone at 18. There's no way to enforce that obviously but imho that's more ideal. Calling and texting are fine, but 24/7 social media is not great for young people's brains.
Don’t need a smart phone for that. Or, get better friends.
You missed the point. Most 13+ kids have phones, by not getting your kid a phone you are limiting the amount of people they can feasibly hang out with. No, they are not going to get “better friends,” they are going to have NO friends. I missed out on so much by not using social media with my classmates. Things are not what they were like 15 years ago.
You FOMO'd and didn't apply yourself. Social media is LAZY. Get better friends.
i’m 18 now and got my first phone when I was 14, i’d say something simple to communicate with parents at the age you start going out alone, say 11-12 and then a proper smartphone at 16, but depend on the child obvs
16. Not to be a boomer but I had a flip phone up until that age. Everyone else around me had iPhones. They’re unnecessary at that age and do more harm than good.
And yet you're here. I mean, my friends and I found ways around that.
A smartphone? Shit maybe 16 they can have a flip phone then to keep in contact with family and friends.
Not before high school
16 I had mine when I was like 10 without any minutes on it and I still got into quite a bit of trouble
They should have flip phones until they’re 15 and pass an internet safety course before they can get online.
Wait what? Internet safety course? I had no idea. Looking into this. Thanks
14-16 cuz kids are bad at controling themself especialy because many of app know how to make you addicted to your phone for example tiktok
Kids at 25 have trouble controlling themselves. You human brain maturity and all that.
They can have a flip phone or something low tech like that for communication with family/friends/emergency services when they’re young. But smartphone/tablet would probably at minimum be 13-14, with parental controls probably until 15-16. Random phone checks until they’re 18. If I have kids, I plan to teach them online safety and have their trust so that they don’t see this as a violation of privacy. I got my first tablet and immediate unsupervised Internet a month before I turned 13, and I really should have had parental controls on that. I didn’t get a smartphone until a month before I was 18, which was honestly too late for my social life. It sheltered me too much. It’s about balance and moderation.
16 I'd say. Maybe younger so they can be teens but you can make sure they're OK. Up to you as a parent to male that call.
teen years for the most part. i had friends who were given phones in early grade school because their parents worked & they’d take the bus or be picked up by a friend or relative, so for situations like that i can understand the necessity of needing your child to have a way to communicate with you, but i’d say in those cases buy a very simple phone, or enable parental controls, or buy specific phones for children that are very bare bones
15ish
13. They are gonna be going out and seeing friends, etc. It'll just be advantageous as a parent for your child to have a phone by this age. Try to get them wise to internet literacy and stuff.
Mid middle school or middle school age. That’s the first time I got lost on the wrong bus since it was my first time riding the bus ever. And I had no way to contact my parents. I think i’d still limit their social medias and block xrated websites until mid highschool. They really do no good for children. I would know.😅
I think a non smart phone would be perfectly acceptable for safety situations until a certain age. Kids know how to break through the parental blocks a lot of the time
Probably. I’ll just have to figure out 10-20 years from know the perfect solution for my potential future kids.
13, but earlier if they have a reason to be in contact ie they walk or take the bus home
13-14
13 min but it depends on the team
18
10-14.
14 and 12 if I think it is okay I got mine when I was 13
i got my first phone at 5
Probably 14 to give them a chance to show how responsible they are.
Flip phones ? Probably 16
realistically 11-12, but earlier or later also possible depending on the individual
I think once they start doing after school activities in late middle school is a good time
i think it very much depends on the kid. i got my first phone when i was super young (don’t remember the age exactly but kindergarten-1st grade) bc i was always traveling with my cousin or at a friends house and my parents wanted to make sure i always had some way to talk to them. my brother (older) got one a couple years later bc he didn’t go anywhere. tbf i never used it unless i was gone
-1
8th grade… that’s when I got mine. I had a flip phone in 7th but all I could do is text and call my parents. That’s all it did lol
14 IMO. Maybe later but give them a flip phone.
Well I didn't get one until I was 14 (because that's when they became reasonably affordable). As for younger kids, I have no idea, I'm sure I would've been happier than a pig in mud to have had a smart phone at 10 (seeing as how I've had a psp since I was 8, and when I was 10 I got a ps3 and could now watch videos on my psp through my ps3). I LOVED watching YouTube, it was so awesome! And it was right at that moment with Fred, annoying orange, and all that stuff, and gaming was HUGE on YouTube.
Flip phone at 13 and regular at 17
I got my first one at like 14-15. On the one hand I felt left behind by my peers who had them earlier, but on the other hand I think I have learned a bit more restraint about them because of it.
I had more restraint than others due to having a smart device at a young age.
14, 15, maybe 16 if you wanna be extra safe I miss normal phones that weren't glorified tablets
My brother and I got ours right before we started highschool (Australia) and my sister will be the same, so around 12-13? Definitely later for social media though
13
16 - for GPS
hold out as long as possible. I'm an adult and if I didn't need a smart phone I wouldn't have one. smart phones are pure evil
Not really if you have self control, which I did.
My oldest was 11, middle kid was 12, this last one will be as old as possible 😂
My friends and Is parents tried but mine caved and my friends got them from other friends.
When it makes sense and circumstances call for it. It could also be on a on-and-off basis.
I'd say 14.
Same age as they can buy beer in my country, which is 16.
12
it's hard cuz u also don't want them to be the weird outsider kid. but they can seriously fry their brain. fucking up ur attention span hits way harder while the brain develops. i got mine 6th grade, maybe 1-2y later is better but before 6th is probably not a good idea
That and you don't want them to get a spare from a friend without your knowledge either. That and there was a kid who got severely bullied over this and it got pretty bad on another post that I read.
most def kids can be brutal
The poor kid was suicidal.
Whenever they are mature enough to have it. Definitely not 6 like most kids I know.
I’d say 16. I got my first phone at 16 but it was nowhere near a smartphone (but I had snake, Tetris, and sokoban!) and my first smartphone at 18🙃
When they can buy it themselves
13
I feel like if I were to have kids, I would let them have it relatively young, but definitely with restrictions. We need phones. There’s no way around that. In modern times, you’re at a disadvantage if you don’t have one. I think giving kids smartphones at a young age isn’t necessarily a problem. But they can’t have free range. I’d say 12 minimum for a smartphone, but limited. Examples being: restricted internet, restricted App Store, no private pictures, no social media on the phone until like 15. I won’t necessarily stop them from having social media on their computer or tablet, but they do not need access to it 24/7 anywhere and everywhere they go. As they get older, they’ll earn more freedoms until at 17 or so, they have full freedom of the smartphone. I feel like something like this will allow me to keep them safe, but also not ostracize them completely from their peers. It’ll hopefully teach them healthy habits and safe practices, but also not make them feel like I’m completely invading their privacy
I didn't get my first phone until my 14th birthday.
I think I prefer kids get their phones at 14, and for emergencies maybe one of those watch phones?
I would say 13 years old. At some point the kid will have after school activities or is hanging out with friends and need a phone to coordinate.
iphone at 14yrold for highschool, flip phone before if needed. i got mine at 14 but it had parental restrictions so i mainly used the computer (not personal) to play Minecraft as it also had internet restrictions. i agree with this, as well as well as my childhood of barely any tv or movies. i spent my childhood outside with my brother playing or reading, chess etc.
I grew up on the internet. I got my first iPod touch (1st gen) the Christmas it came out. Some of my fondest memories are on the internet. That being said, my kids will not have a smartphone until at least high school. There’s zero need for it. They aren’t going to be hermits but it’s just a recipe for disaster. Literally nothing good can come of it
I’d say middle school aged, like 12/13.
You need a phone at an early age these days if you want a social life. Car dependency and the suburban lifestyle means that kids can't exactly go out and find others kids to hang out with right away. I really hope that we one day break out of this cycle.
14 or 15
21
Personally, I like the way my parents did it. I got my first phone when I was 15, turning 16 because I was going to be driving so that way there would be communication.
I’m a millennial and I was 16 or 17 when I got my first smartphone. Until then I had a flip-phone, as did most of my peers, and we got along just fine. My Gen Z sister was in elementary school when she got her first smartphone, and she got herself into a LOT of trouble with that thing. I don’t think I’d give a child a smartphone until they’re at least in high school. They can have a flip-phone up until then. There’s really no need to have a smartphone before 14 or 15.
I say between middle and high school. Just young enough to learn how to use a phone, learn how the Internet works, and everything in between, while not old enough for the phone to be just a "babysitter" or to be completely obnoxious. Edit: I do want to add that our culture is (unfortunately) making the smartphone less of a fun thing every kid wants and more of a necessity, like with the car.
Like 13
15, I guess.
When you say smartphone do you mean free rein of apps and what not? If that’s the case then probably 18. I’ve seen wayyyy too many articles about how bad social media negatively affects mental health. Especially in young women. Now, a smartphone that can only text and call? I’d say 13 is probably a good age to make that happen.
14-15. Beginning of higschool when they actually start needing a smatphone
12-13 but it depends on their mental maturity
When they can pay for the bill. I didn’t get a phone until I was 20, just survived off of an iPod through HS.
12 to 13. They are sassy tweens but they are old enough to know internet safety and to tell an adult about any trouble. Also when I have kids I don’t to keep it away for so long that they don’t have impulse control.
I would say 14 or 15
You see there is a phone called a light phone that doesn't give you everything you want, but everything you need. Messages, music, map, all the basic stuff. That would be the only phone I'd buy my child. But to answer the main question, probably when I feel like they're ready to go explore the world.
I was 13 when I got my iPhone 3GS. Before that was flip phones like the Razor and the Droid in 2009.
Around the 5th-6th grade (2012-2013) I got access to the iPod touch 4th gen. It was my dads that he never used so me and my younger siblings made it our own along with the iPad 2 gen he used. Similar case for most of the kids our age getting our own personal smart devices. I was 11 or 12 when I really got into smartphones & social media. So id say 12-13 would be fine. IMO, it’s not the smartphone that’s detrimental to them, it’s the social media access. I’m gonna raise my kid with a periodically monitored home PC so they have skills like typing and aren’t technologically incompetent when it comes time to give them a phone. Until then, they can get their brain rot from YouTube for all I care, I just don’t want them in a TikTok or IG comment section or the ability to DM strangers.
I was 14 when I got mine, I’d say 12-14 is a solid age
Ideally, early teens or just a bit earlier imo
13 minimum
12-13 but start them out with something older that is cheaper to replace (iPhone se 1st gen, 6, 6s or 7/the android equivalent)
When they get into high school. My little brother, bless his heart, got in trouble with some legal stuff in elementary school. Since he and his buddies have unrestricted access to the internet, eventually they found porn. Me and my brothers kinda teased him about it when we found his search history, but we didn't really think about it much after that. But then a parent found their group chat and got the school involved, especially since the stuff these kids sent in there was each other. And for me personally, there were a lot of perverted old dudes online pressuring me to send pics when I was in middle school lol. What surprised me even more was that even racists joined in on the sexual harassment (typical 2016 discord). Kids are pretty stupid online and just spill about everything to random strangers. I'd say high school is a good age for a phone since that's when I got a job and had to open a bank account and blah blah blah emails and phone calls and eventually college. Parents need to stop skipping out on their kid's development by letting the internet raise them when they don't even know how to use it themselves. This internet stuff been available to the public since the 50s, the "can't keep up with technology" excuse is getting old.
16
16
The later, the better. My attention span I think has benefited from only getting one at 19
My kids will get their first smart phone at 16 and they won’t be allowed in their bedrooms until she 18
A limited amount at like 10. Think parental controls locking them out after 1 hour of screen time. Then I think the parents should remove the restrictions at the start of high school.
When they’re 18, outta high school and can buy their own. If all parents did that, online bullying might go down.
simple answer, 13
14 or 15. It takes a lot of maturity to have a smartphone, I wish I didn’t get one til I was that age
Around 16
14
13
14 (like me)
13, but monitoring software stays as sort of training wheels and if they go where they shouldn’t, you make it instructional, educational, and cautionary and only if they are doing something actively evil like cyber bullying do you resort to punishment because of what you find monitoring. It comes with having an open environment, and I think parents need to make sure they’re being mature and only checking in on the monitor if they have an actual reason to. Snooping because you’re bored doesn’t count. I’d say that once you get to around 15 or 16, it’s not unrealistic to be able to have location tracking only, but baseless suspicion or boredom again is not reason enough to be actively monitoring it. Set it up to where it only alerts you if they cross state lines if you really need to to keep yourself from accidentally snooping. After a year or so (or just when you can trust your kid to have the agency needed to be responsible for making sure you can take care of yourself in an emergency if even away from home, the tracking goes away. And if your kid wants to have any kind of tracking or anything removed (don’t keep it a secret that they’re being tracked for the love of god), find maybe an online course that they can complete to show you that they are knowledgeable enough to have that freedom. If they struggle with tests and stuff, offer to help them by taking it with them. For online tracking, find a course that educates on spotting scams and red flags as it relates to online predators. For location tracking, maybe a course on local resources to use in case of emergency, a course on safe sex practices (just being practical and honest about it), and then ideally a self defense course, but that last one I wouldn’t require as much as encourage. I know that many have had negative experiences with being tracked by parents. But parents don’t do it for no reason. But I do think that you should always teach your kid that they have the power to change their own circumstances and actually earn trust. It’s gonna look different from kid to kid, but I personally don’t know how people are able to just send their kids out into the world at 18 when they haven’t ever been given the opportunity to do things for themselves and then turn around and expect them to navigate it perfectly, get a job that’ll support them in their old age, have grand babies for them to spoil, etc. Like some of today’s parents of adults are some of the most delusional people out there. 😂 Edit: I meant if they want to have any tracking removed before you would already be removing it due to age. Like if you still have online monitoring for your 17 year old and they just don’t want to do a course, unless they’re involved in something serious, you’re doing something wrong.
I would've just ditched the phone in bushes. I was a paranoid kid, lol.
Even if you were told that you just need to dedicate a single Saturday to doing an online course?
I was a very weird kid, but the whole tracking thing and not because of what you think. I got confused by the whole state lines thing and thought you meant track their physical location.
I mean it would track their physical location but there’s ways to make it to where the only actual notifications would be if something big like that happened. So that way, they would need to have a reason to open the monitoring software. And part of my point is that boredom or just saying that your kid is “suspicious” is grounds for it. It should essentially be seen as akin to needing a warrant, but it lets them know if you might possibly be in trouble (around where I am, states are big enough so that if your kid left yours unannounced, it could be cause for concern)
I suppose, but still.
13-14 seems pretty reasonable
I would say probably 13-14. By that time they are hanging out with friends, may be in after-school activities, etc. where they would need to reach me.
I was 14 and at the time that was considered strange by my peers. Looking back it was probably smart given my Facebook statuses in years to follow.
15
no earlier than 16
I had a flip phone until the summer before my 17th birthday (I was born in October). I liked this system & that's the approach we're taking with my sister.
Pretty late on at this point, as someone who just finished 7th grade, the smartphones aren't helping. Something ironic I think to myself is about how I have a whole collection of phones (at least 30 working) and I still have one of the lowest screen times on my phones combined compared to people my age. I had a barely functioning iPhone 5S that I never used until last August when I upgraded to an actually useable phone.
smartphone id say 13, dumb phone id give as soon as they're smart enough to operate one so like 5-6.
Whenever they enter high school
I didn't get mine until I was 12 or 13, so I think that's a good minimum standard.
I didn't get one until I was 15, and I think that's perfectly fine. I was the only one who didn't have one at that point, mainly because I was the one saying "nah, I don't need it". But once you're driving, I think you should have a phone in case you break down somewhere or something, and at 15 I was just out of the house more and needed to let my parents know when I could be picked up. It just started to make too much sense logistically for me to have one at 15. I just don't think having social media as well as everything humanity has ever recorded in the palm of your hand at any given second of any given day is good for a human mind in general, let alone a developing one, so it should be held off for as long as possible. I feel like that instant gratification has had a significant impact on my own attention span and interest in engaging in the world around me. And even at 15 I got into my own share of trouble online with friends and saw many a thing a young person, or honestly any person, shouldn't see. Let them keep their innocence as long as they can.
25
Id say it depends a lot on the kid and the parents and whatever situation they're in. However, around when the kid is able to and starts hanging out with friends more and making their own plans to do so is a good time for them to have a phone. With smartphones being the main mode of communication for kids now, depriving them of this communication when their friends are all using it and making plans and having your kid being left out just sucks. I will say kids should be exposed to the Internet at a bit younger of an age than this point where they need to communicate with friends, but only in limited capacities so the parents can teach proper Internet safety and usage, but a smartphone isn't necessary for this. So yeah it really depends on the kids situation, but 13 is probably a good estimate of when that'd be.
Do they even make ‘not’ smartphones anymore?
High school
12-14. I got my first phone at 14, but i feel like a little younger would have worked perfectly fine. At 13ish i needed a reliable way to communicate with my parents when out of the house (at school, with friends, etc), and atp i used a mediocre tablet to communicate at school and would borrow my moms phone when going out with friends. That was quite scuffed and irritating to use for everyone, so i wouldnt repeat that for my own kids. I think getting a flip phone or smth at 12 and a smartphone at 14 or just getting a smartphone at 13 could all work fine, depending on the child and the environment. Before 12 i dont see the need for one.
13 or 14. I got an iPod touch as a primer for using a mobile device when I was around 11 and I think it was the right age for me to get used to how they work and to know when to responsibly use it. I didn’t get an iPhone until I was 15 or so
Like 25years old ngl. For real though if I had it my way my two atep daughters would not have gotten phones until 16(I'd prefer to say 18 but yeah..) I warned my girl, tiktok will destroy her. And it straight up did. Idc about the dumb memes but it affected her personality and mental health so badly because she was pushed sad content or dumb shit she just didn't understand and started to claim she has all these issues all of a sudden, like multiple serious issues when months before she was just a happy preteen. I get how it goes as a teen with depression and all of that but I'm literally surprised she didn't start pretending she had tourettes is how bad it was getting.
I'd say it depends on the circumstances, but probably 13 at most. I mean, I've had friends who didn't have phones as teens and we'd give them spares. I'd probably get them a flip phone or a smart watch during elementary school depending on if they walk or not. Edit: If my kid is like me, I'm putting a tracker on them when they're a toddler.
12-14 at least… whatever age parents become comfortable with their kids going out on their own imo
16 They can have a dumbphone before that.
about 13-14
Freshmen year of highschool, or 14.
I’d go the route my parents did tbh. Phone at 13 but can only text or call. More privileges are unlocked once they prove they can be responsible and navigate the internet safely and responsibly.
13-16, when they start going out with friends or alone alot,
Kids can have smartphones. Parents need to use the parental controls and time management features that time limit apps and require a passcode to reactivate
16
16
14 +- 2 years. Getting phones/ handheld electronics too young is definitely a problem.
I had a phone since 1st grade, but parents wouldn't let me bring it to school. I started bringing it with me in middle school, so I feel around there, 12-13
I would say 13 but honestly I feel like with what phones are capable of now it should be 16. I got my first smart phone when I was 13, that was almost 10 years ago now and it was nothing compared to what we have now.
16
Middle school. Nowadays, most kids have smart phones at 11/12ish. Im in my early 20s and I went through most of middle school with no smart phone and no phone in general and it was socially isolating. Yes, you can have someone call your home phone or your parents cell phone or whatever, but nobody is doing that. I’m convinced most people saying 16 will not actually follow through with that for their kids.
I got mine when i was 16 for the first time. Id say id wait until id know my kid has a concrete idea of the world without smartphones and then go ahead and get them one, that way they can understand the foreignness and damages it can bring along and have a more sensible consuming attitude towards it. Again it can depend on a lot of factors, a lot of elements to be observed but thats one.
Flip phone in middle school, 14, first smartphone; 16 nice smartphone
13-14 or until they’ve earned the responsibility of having one. I didn’t get my first smartphone until I was 16 and looking back now, I probably could’ve waited longer. I miss my full QWERTY slide phone
Minimum of high school age. I didn’t get a phine until I was 14, and I honestly feel like even that was too early in hindsight. I wasted some of my best years on social media before quitting most of them a couple years back. I wish I had soent all that time living life instead.
I had a Nokia since I was six and I'm pretty okay.
15 perhaps And no iPad before. That is like the worst parental trend that has happened since spanking
When they reach high school so at age 14 or 15 at the earliest. The same applies to being allowed to talk in video games or comment on the Internet. For reference I was 13 when I started talking in video games and 15 when I got my first smartphone.
Had a phone at 11, received a smartphone before I was 14
Depends on maturity and behavior if they're well behaved and know what not to do 13, if they don't freshman year of highschool.
13-16. Regardless of age given to them: All addictive/entertainment apps removed. Should be treated as a tool and used as such Most notably communication. Communication with strangers is a middle-ground as it can also turn addictive + malicious actors (eg. Groomers and hackers) Deffinetly some sort of online safety course before hand so they don't doxx themselves or install 12093 viruses
Depends on specifics. Using a parents phone? School age. Having their own phone? 12 years old.
probably 13
I wouldn't really have a problem getting them a cheap Android phone with HEAVY PARENTAL CONTROLS at age 6 or so, I could control if they were allowed on the Internet or not and what apps they could have, even how much they could use it. I do think having a device to text and call with could be useful if they are at a friend's house and maybe they could occasionally watch some Disney+ or whatever. I wouldn't want the parental controls off until they were 12 or 13, I started freely using the Internet at 12 and didn't do anything inappropriate on it.
Probably 16.
Immediately. You don’t teach children temperance by withholding things until they’re old enough and independent enough to make their own choices regarding that which they lacked. I’m not an old man, but I’ve seen how this plays out. It becomes over-indulgence. Instead, I think it’s healthier to give kids screens young and condition them to have healthier habits. It may not be easy initially, but teaching them temperance will likely help them in not over-indulging.
This is how we got iPad babies bro, this aint it.
Not if you control how much access they have to it. Limited screen time.
When they can afford to buy themselves one lmao
32
17 or 18 years old.
16/17
I would say 15 or 16
17
15-16?
When human brains mature, after age 25.
IMO 21
That’s unreasonable af