At what age should kids get their first cell phone?

How may kids do you have who are pre-teens or teens? If you have any, do you have a television?

I agree that kids can waste a lot of time with cell phones, but not with prepaid ones that run out of minutes if they do what you are talking about.

Don't blame the technology. Ultimately, it comes down to two people communicating, and they can do that with or without a phone. They can waste time chatting about nonsense in person, or they can call their friends to work on homework problems. How much they think depends on how much you let them think. That's where we differ in opinion. I feel that if you try to supervise every little activity, including whether a 12 year old can talk to somebody, then the child is learning not to think because she does not have to think.

I think when they are at college level , that the right time to give cell phone.

I agree that cell phones are tools and not toys, they are too expensive and in some cases fragile for kids to be playing with. I am not a parent, but I believe that if a child shows a greater level of responsibility than their peers, they could be granted the priviledge with the knowledge that they can lose that priviledge at any time. I would also start them off with something like that phone that has a button to call parents, a button for 911 and one other button for something else.

If they can keep something like that in good condition, then they could have more cellular services rolled out to them. In this case, they would need to be able to pay at least a little of the cost (whether by chores or because they have a job) so they continue to show responsibility and know the value of having something. Nothing is free and they should be made aware of that at every opportunity.

I'm not one to say that you have to be a parent to know what you are talking about, but it helps. If you don't have first hand experience with a child who is at the age where his or her peers have phones, then it's harder to judge.

As for cost, toys are often more expensive than cell phones, and just as fragile. You can get a used cell phone on eBay for $10, and pay as little as $10/year once the service is established for pay as you go. If they want more, then we are not really talking about cell phones, but about gadgets that share a housing with a cell phone.

I'm sure that my kids would like a phone as a status symbol, but they don't have them. They would love to have a RAZR V3, or something wish flashy games or MP3 capabilities. But what they have instead are basic phones that can be used to make phone calls. Nobody in their school thinks of those phones as a status symbol. My kids know enough not to be embarassed by the lack of a status symbol, and they also know that I'd gladly buy them the phone of their choice -- if they can show me that they need it. In other words, they are not getting anything more impressive unless it's cost effective for me to do so.

It has nothing to do with needing to be appreciated. I'm glad that you are above being affected by your kids friends who probably think you are a jerk, and you should be above all that. Impressing them is not your concern. Part of the strict rules I gave my kids is that they can use the phones only to call home/parents, and I'm thankful for the convenience of being able to call them any time I want. Personally, I'd rather teach my kids responsibility, but your parenting style is up to you.

There are several different reasons why kids shouldn't use cell phones. On the other hand as you stated there are adults that should be banned also.
It's getting worse every day. They stopped cigarette
smoking in restaurants, they should do the same with
cell phones. They can go outside to use them. I don't believe you should drive & talk. I know there
are several folks that believe they can talk & drive.
I have seen to many instances that almost caused an accident because someone was talking on the cell phone while they were driving. We have to get it under control.

The worst offenders tend to be adults. It's the behavior, not the technology though.

If I can talk to a person in a restaurant, I should be able to talk to somebody on the phone without bothering anybody either. I've found that I can talk at a lower level on the phone than to the person across the table, since I'm talking right into the phone. If I'm in a place that's so noisy that I would need to shout, I'll step outside. It would be rude to the person at the other end of the phone not to do so.

Where I live, people use phones in restaurants all the time, and you would probably never notice. But there's the occasional ******* who sits at the table next to a family, and makes his obsenity laced call at a volume that could alert the whole restaurant. People should learn to behave.

Although I've heard my share of people who abuse cell phones, I don't recall seeing it from youth.

Many people don't realize that any phone can call 911, even if it has no active service. You can take an old phone that is no longer in use and give it to a child for 911 access.

As for parents, there are phones that allow you to limit their use to numbers in their phone directory, either for incoming, outgoing or for both. Since pay as you go plans are cheaper than the kid type plans, I'd just as soon get an easy to use phone and keep the overall cost down.

The other issue I have is that a two year old should not be in a position where there is no adult supervision, and once kids are old enough for that, they are old enough not to need something so simplistic.

Still, it's a good idea to have an easy to use device for emergencies. It would not be too hard to design an emergency phone for kids that works as a cordless phone, and has that sort of capability. Then people can pay for it one time, and have the security. Likewise, it would be possible to design a bluetooth interface with simple buttons, and it could even look like a phone. It could piggyback off a regular cell phone, which merely needs to be nearby, and could have a built in limit of what numbers it can call, and which calls to let through. It could also talk to the bluetooth dongle on the computer and phone that way. It's getting a special monthly service that I have a problem with.

nor do they ever need to figure anything out, from correct change to which street they should cross...all they need to do is call mom and she'll tell them. yikes.
scary thought.
On Your Own used to mean On Your Own, now it means, "my cell phone's down, what do I do now?"

Your sarcasm is quite interesting. Take into consideration that people have many different lifestyles, families, and relationships. The possibilities are endless. What if a child's parents are divorced, or are away from home a lot. Or what if the 'child' has started 'a life of their own' and goes places (like a normal human being who doesn't sit around all day) What if an emergency ever occurs? How would you reach your loved one, family member etc.?

Though there should be limits, because many children are still irresponsible but this does not mean that all are, and children shouldn't have cell phones period.

You probably didn't really mean it the way it came out. Never being alone with your thoughts could lead to mental illness. What you probably meant was never being alone -period- and that's a nice, secure feeling for a kid. Nice for a parent too.

My sibs and I are close, and we're close with our kids. We can trust them and they understand a family budget and help out with it. My daughter is 7. If I hadn't started homeschooling her and two of my bro's kids, she would have gotten a cell phone in the next couple years. Now she doesn't need one - but if she starts going places without me she'll get her own phone because I know I can trust her to stay within guidelines. I know that because she already stays within guidelines on other things. We talk about everything and I'll do what I can to keep it that way - even if it's by cell phone.

Jeanjaz

Three year olds are not supposed to be left unsupervised, and don't typically care for phones anyway. They would rather have toys.

Others here are talking about an age when kids are out on their own, and having a way to communicate in an emergency. When I was growing up, there were still phone booths, so kids still made those sorts of calls. It was just much more inconvenient, and parents had no way of reaching the kids. I suppose that back then, there were some old timers who talked about how there were no phone booths when they were growing up, and did not undersand why my parents wanted me to carry a dime.

I got my 1st prepaid cellphone as an Chirstmas gift when I turned 16. Ever since being 16, i had a cellphone but allways prepaid and i am the one that pays for my cellphone. Nobody else pays for my phone and i think thats the way it should be. i will also have my cellphone when i go to university and i will still be paying for my phone use. If you can be old enough to drive a car and pay the insurance, gas ect then you are old enough to get a cellphone and pay it yourself.

I too have a ten year old, but we have a land line and she can call me from there, of course I don't allow my daughter to run the streets when she gets out of school. She has homework and chores to do till I get home, so I already know where she is and therefore no cell phone is needed. Please don't misunderstand, but you did imply that your child was running the streets.

I just got my first one about three months ago but only because my car had broken down several times. It is only on when I am in the car, but not to chit chat, but for emergencies only. I too hate those who feel they can talk and run stop signs/red lights or turn without turn signals because they are too busy holding the phone.
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It's hard to say what your 9 year old will be like in a few years. Kids can change. The nice thing is that you are setting an example of what is expected.

My mom always let me use her cell phone until I went away to university and then I got one of my own and was put on a pay as you go plan because when I'm at school I had manditory night classes and I no longer live on campus and walking home alone at 10pm isn't the safest feeling, I think it was a good time to get my own phone.

And on the topic of driving with friends in the car. If you don't want your kids to drive with their friends in the car for at least a year I think you're being ridiculous. I live in Ontario where we have a graduated system so for the first 8 months I drove I had to have a experienced driver with me in the car but I was also usually driving with 3 of my friends in the back seat to and from practices and found that my friends who never got to drive with other people in the car were not confident or safe drivers for a while after they started driving by themselves. I much prefer people who's parents took some time with them when they were learning to drive with some friends in the background cause you children will be a lot less distracted by conversations when they are driving if they are used to the background noise. Plus a radio is a lot more distracting then friends when you play it at the volume you would with no one else in the car. And if you leave your kids home alone with a car are they really going to only go out with one friend???

We did do that with our oldest child. When she first started going out with her friends, she would take DH's phone since mine is used for work and personal. Once she showed she could be responsible with the phone, she was allowed to get her own phone...she was 15 at the time. Once our son started being away from us more often for sleepovers and such, the same thing was done for him and he received his phone at age 11.

They showed us that we could trust them with a phone at a time that was right for them. Our daughter wasn't interested in getting a cell until she was 14. Our son is involved in sports and is a social butterfly hence him getting his phone at an earlier age.

As for the driving thing, it's the law here that you can't have more than one passenger unless the passenger is over 18 during your first year of being licensed. After your 1st year, you can carry no more than three passengers under 18. These restrictions are for drivers under 18, but do not apply to family members.

Our kids know and respect the rules set regarding their phones, and I can honestly say that I haven't been disappointed yet! The package that my DH's phone is on allows plenty of minutes for the three phones to share, so I'm only paying for having the extra lines added to the account. That extra $20 for both the kid's lines is well worth the peace of mind we have knowing they can get help IF they need it.

That way, they have a phone just the same, but you don't have one all the time. If my kids call me to come pick them up after a party, I'd like to be able to call them when I'm on the way if something comes up. If I think it's important enough for my kids to have a phone in an emergency, then I think I can justify the same for myself.

These days, a phone can cost as little as $10 a year, once you have the initial phone. And people sell them cheap on eBay. You can probably even find somebody to give you an old GSM phone for free.

If it's merely a matter of not wanting them to have the phone all the time, then it does not matter if it's "your" phone or not. You can give them their phone to use whenever they go somewhere that you think warrants having a phone with them.

As for driving, my state laws are the same as the other poster's. It all comes down to responsibility.