cell phones for kids

[momz]

My DD is turning 10 (already). I'm thinking of taking the leap and letting her have a cell phone for her birthday. As she grows, there have been more and more times that I've found myself letting her have my cell phone for a time because I wanted her to feel like she could reach me if she needs to.

Anyway, I'm wondering about what kind of options there are for tweens. My specific concerns 1. running up the minutes. 2. running up the texts. 3. using the phone when she shouldn't be..ie.. at school. 4. giving her number out to anyone and everyone. 5.sending/receiving photo messages (i trust my kid...I don't trust all kids though...also, this may become a bigger concern as she gets older).

What else should I be concerned about? What phones/plans would you suggest for a tween?

 

[mjkacmom]

I have 3 kids on my plan, for the extra $10 a month. We have the lowest minutes allowed, and never come close to using them all. We also have unlimited texting. I don't know anyone with children with cellphones that doesn't have unlimted texting.

 

[2disneyboys]

our ds10 is also on our plan for $10 a month and we have family unlimited texting (DH sends more texts than my teenage neice's do!) we also never come anywhere close to using all our minutes.

I think MOST cell phone providers have an option for parental lock on the phone.. we pay an extra 3.99 a month and we can restrict the phone usage as much or as little as we want... totally flexible in how we can set it up. most of them will let you set "time" that the phone can and cannot be used, # of texts it can get &/or send, phone call min's etc. we can even restrict phone to only accept/make calls to & from specific numbers. we don't have a land line and while we don't really leave our DS10 home alone (unless you count the few times he does not go on the neighborhood walk or bike ride with us) however, I want him to get used to the responsibility of the care of a phone not to mention the use of the phone. and I also don't have to bellow like a fishwife when I need him to come home from playing @ the neighbor's house.

 

[mickeyboat]

DDs 10 & 11 got cell phones for Christmas this year. We started letting them come home after school and I wanted to be able to get in touch with them since there wouldn't be anyone waiting to make sure they got home o.k.

They have been very responsible about them. We got unlimited text and increased our minutes (mostley because DH uses the cell for his business). Most of their friends are on Verizon - so when they talk to each other, it doesn't use minutes. We also have 10 friends and damily numbers we can call without using minutes.

Most of the time they text, though.

The kid do bring their phones to school, but they keep them off until they get on the bus. I do have them put their phones in my room when they go to bed. They charge them there and I can make sure they are not texting their friends all night long.

They are careful who they give their number to. We did end up blocking "paid texts" - When you can receive a text or send a text and charge something to your cell phone bill.

As for photo messages, the kids send and receive them, but I haven't seen anything too terrible so far. They understand the dangers of sending and receiving inappropriate photos.

The kids know that I can and will check their phones whenever I want to, so they had better be careful on what they say. I also monitor their usage on line. Verizon has some great monitoring and limiting tools (many for a fee). The kids know that if I see something I don't like, I can and will disable their lines.

 

[katesorad]

I think that cell phones are very appropriate for a 10 year-old. I'd have your daughter plug in the phone every night in the kitchen (or another common area of the house), so that she isn't up all night texting and so that you have access to view the phone at any time you wish.

Just come up with rules about her minutes/texts, etc. Come up with what you'd like to pay for, and if she breaks the rules, then take her phone away for a week. And have a zero tolerance policy for if you see anything inappropriate to cancel her service and take it away until she's 18. That should scare her into being appropriate.

 

[scrapquitler]

I think that if you have a child on your family plan, unlimited texting is much more important than the number of talk minutes included. Generally speaking, (at least with our plan) mobile to mobile minutes are free with lots of family plans, so if your child calls friends with a cell, it's not going to count against your plan minutes anyway (yes, this may vary depending on your provider. We have Verizon).

Typically, my 14 year old uses 7,000 texts per month, and about 30 minutes of call time. At least where I live, the kids rarely talk on the phone, they text.

 

[momz]

I just found a product called mymobilewatchdog . com. Do you think this is a valuable tool, or do you think it is a way of preying on parent's fears and not necessary?

It's a monitoring service. It includes a webpage where the parent can view all the texts and photos that are sent and received. Also, it will alert the parent's cell phone of any "unauthorized activity".

It's marketed as a tool for parents against cyber bullying and sexting.

Thoughts?

 

[ToyStory Fan]

We have a Verizon plan...DW has a BlackBerry, DS12 and I have Droids (R2D2 for him and Droid X for me) and we just got DD9 an LG Cosmos touch.

DS gets the droid and data plan because of the calendaring features and the ical feeds from his sports teams in order to keep his schedule as up to date as possible...

DD did not really need all of the bells and whistles yet, and she has unlimited texting included so it was a pretty easy decision.

With the verizon plans and phones they also offer some phones that have a chaperone / kid locator service (we have aa friend that uses this) that can send you (the parent) a text alert when your kids phone is located via gps in a certain place...ie. at school, at a friend's house, getting off the bus at home...etc.

With Verizon phone plans - and the minutes...you get up to 10 friends & family numbers that are non Verizon to automatically be free...and you get all verizon to verizon calls for free...so really your only minutes are used when you go out side of both those groups...

we have 5 lines (MIL is on for 1 as well) and we manage with 1400 minutes combined for all of us...unltd text for all, data plan on 3 of them. One thing I would say is regardless of the "initial" phone cost for a child...get the insurance it will still be cheaper to pay the deductible on a replacement than it will be to potentially have to replace the same phone at full (non contract price).

 

[scrapquitler]

One thing I would say is regardless of the "initial" phone cost for a child...get the insurance it will still be cheaper to pay the deductible on a replacement than it will be to potentially have to replace the same phone at full (non contract price).

Or instead keep an older phone that you no longer use, and if something happens to the child's phone, activate your 'old' phone for the child's line. Then you aren't paying $7 a month or whatever it costs for the insurance. This also serves as an incentive for my DD to take care of her phone because she doesn't want my old phone, it doesn't have some of the features hers does (slide out keyboard, for example).

 

[Magpie]

Another option...

We chose to get a "family" cellphone, instead of one specifically for the kids. We bought a cheap phone, loaded it up with prepaid minutes, and told them it's just for emergencies, or if they need to get in touch with us for some reason.

So far my son has used it a few times to say he's gotten lost on the way to a friend's house, and could we please look up his location on Google Maps. And my daughter's used it to tell us that she's staying after school, so don't worry if she's home late.

Neither of them text. We'll be picking up another "family cellphone" this year, so they can both carry one in high school.

 

[goofy!]

My DD is turning 10 (already). I'm thinking of taking the leap and letting her have a cell phone for her birthday. As she grows, there have been more and more times that I've found myself letting her have my cell phone for a time because I wanted her to feel like she could reach me if she needs to.

Anyway, I'm wondering about what kind of options there are for tweens. My specific concerns 1. running up the minutes. 2. running up the texts. 3. using the phone when she shouldn't be..ie.. at school. 4. giving her number out to anyone and everyone. 5.sending/receiving photo messages (i trust my kid...I don't trust all kids though...also, this may become a bigger concern as she gets older).

What else should I be concerned about? What phones/plans would you suggest for a tween?

I have 3 kids and all 3 have cell phones.

We have the sprint family plan.

I love it because cell phone to any other cell phone, no matter the carrier, are always free minutes. It doesn't have to only be Sprint customers or you are not limited to only 10 people you can call for free. Only cell phone to land line costs you minutes, ever. Since kids almost always call each other's cells and rarely call a house phone, we can get away with a miniscule amount of minutes.

It also comes with unlimited texting and data, so no worries about those charges either.

My kids have always been very responsible with their phones. Even my daughter with Down syndrome easily manages her calls and texting. She uses her phone for talking, lots and lots of texting (opened up a whole new communication world for her in her special needs world) and facebook.

I don't go overboard on monitoring as the kids have always been very conscientious. I check number of texts sent each month and will do random spot checks, and have never found anything inappropriate yet.

We have a policy in our house that they have our trust until they break it. Then it will be very, very hard to earn it back. We are lucky and have had an easy road as trusting them has worked for us.

 

[aprilgail2]

I wouldn't worry about the minutes but be sure you have unlimited texting! I got my daughter her first phone in 5th grade. She would carry it with her when she went to the local park or to tell me she was leaving someplace and walking home. This week I just got us both Iphones (she is very happy!) now that she is 11 and has been responsible with her phone for a year now. It would ust be a pain if she didn't have one- when the kids go to the movies and it ends and they are looking for a ride home its easy for her to just take out the phone and call. Right now she is 18 blocks away riding her bike with friends but if she needs me she can just call.

 

[bjscheel]

We just got DD12 a Tracfone. That is what I have myself because I don't use it alot. It was cheaper than moving DH's Verizon up to a family plan.

We got a double minutes phone and bought the 1500 minute annual plan for $199. So with activation bonus minutes and time she ended up with 3000 minutes for 424 days. That is 7 units per day, on average. Texts take only .3 units, so she can send 21 texts per day on average, which she is usually well under. She is careful and actually enjoys budgeting her minutes and likes to check her average minutes per day left, which is slowly going up because she uses less than 7/day. It's a little like a contest with her. I think it's alright she doesn't send thousands of pointless texts a month.

Eventually we will probably move up to something else, but we thought it was a good starting point.