The question of when your child is ready for a cell phone can be hard to answer, especially if your kid’s friends all have their own phones. Kids don’t like feeling left out, especially when it comes to something as fun and interesting as a phone of their own. But there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to whether your child actually needs a phone or not. So how can you tell when the time is right? Ask yourself these questions to arrive at your ideal solution.
Why Does My Child Need a Phone?
Focusing on “why” rather than “when” can be helpful, especially if you’re being swayed by your kid’s complaints that all their friends have phones. What does your child actually need this phone for? Children who are never out of an adult’s watchful eye and have all their transportation needs coordinated probably don’t need to have a phone. If all they want to do is play games and text with their friends, you can get them a small tablet that either stays at home or travels in their bag.
Is My Child Responsible With Expensive Possessions?
Kids who frequently lose glasses, wallets, electronic toys, and other big-ticket items probably aren’t organized and responsible enough for a phone just yet. However, if you’re starting to see a real need for emergency contact and other communication functions, you can start working with your child to establish a pattern of responsibility for something financially inconsequential but representative of a phone. You can even give your child a toy phone for six weeks as a trial run and explain that if he or she still has the toy phone in good condition at the end of the test, they can have their own version of the real deal.
Will Other Siblings Understand?
Remember that what’s right for one of your kids may not be right for all of them. Your eldest kid might not have gotten a phone until he was 10, but if your youngest is responsible and needs to call you to be picked up from school after violin practice, that child might need to get a phone at age 8. If you have multiple or a blended family with kids of the same age, it can be hard to navigate this issue when one kid does seem ready but his or her age-peer siblings do not.
Can I Set App Usage Limits?
When you determine the time is right, it’s a good idea to monitor your kids’ phone usage, particularly when it comes to apps. A plus side to your child having a phone? There are multiple family-friendly apps that help parents keep a watchful eye on their kids and more.
Setting boundaries with your kid and getting to control purchases and other activities within the apps themselves is important, but if you can’t do this, the time might not be right. Ultimately, as with getting the phone itself in the first place, the choice of what apps to allow and when is entirely yours. When you have teenagers the ‘having a phone’ argument more than likely has already happened. There are many studies that prove limiting screen time for teenagers could be a good thing, simply because it can become addictive. Many of these studies can be found in a fantastic book called, “Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood” by Lisa Damour. Additionally, there are some apps for parents that can help with screen time limits. A couple include:
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