General Chat

My lad is 7, nearly 8 and he is after one but he won't be getting one even though all his friends do have them.

There are advantages and disadvantages both ways. In days gone by we had the facility of a phone box to ring our parents in an emergency. You can't find a phone box for love nor money round here these days. BUT an 8 year old should not be far enough away from home to require either a phone box or a mobile.

Parents buy them for their kids so that they can keep in touch with the kids to know where they are. They should know where their kids are without a phone. If their child is not at home, they should only be inside a friend's house. The parents should be well acquainted with the parents of other children and have their phone numbers anyway. At 8 the other children should be in the same street anyway. Any further than than that and the parents should be delivering/collecting them from the other house. The only other time they should be away from home is at school. In a school emergency the secretary would ring.

My son won't be getting one until he is at secondary school, and that is only because it is a bit further away from home and he will have to go by himself. Currently I take him to and from school. Even then he will have the minimum amount of credit on it just for emergencies. I won't be putting money on it for him to be phoning all and sundry at my expense.

I'm probably very old fashioned but I don't care.

Dianne xx

My daughter was given her first phone when she was 11 & started to go out with her friends. Her first phone was my old one which was on it's last legs. We agreed to pay 1/2 of the Top Up fees the rest was to come out of her pocket money as our attitude was we were willing to pay for her to contact us if we were needed but she was to pay to text her friends.
The years have past, she now has am up to date all singing & dancing phone on her Dad's contact but she has never abused the privilege.

have told my daughter she can have a phone when she is 12. she dosn't even use our landline. Lynette xx

8 seems very young to me. As others have said, I just can't imagine why a child that age would need a mobile phone. When I was that age, I couldn't even keep a Barbie doll neat and tidy (I used to lose the shoes and set about the hair with scissors etc) let alone something as technical as a phone.

I didn't get a mobile phone till I was 18, I think. I only used to use it when I was at college and at university to get in touch with my mum and dad. In fact, since I've finished university, it has spent most of its time in coat pockets or in my room not switched on anyway because I make and receive so few calls and texts, I often forget to charge it.

This is partly why I'm still on pay-as-you-go. £5 on my sister's phone would last her two days - to her a phone is as essential as breathing (probably because she's always out) but on mine it could last three months.

My 11 year old grandson has a mobile but only because his mum had a new phone and he took hers over. He doesn't use it that much. i think 11 is quite old enough and 8 is far too young. So many youngsters are mugged for their phones it only adds to the risks they run.

ann
Glos

Dear Hedgehog,
I agree with you, last night someone told me that their parents had brought their little sister aged 9 a moblie, so they Knew where they were!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
errrr aged 10, I opened my big mouth and said, surely your parents should know where their 9 year old is at all times!!!!!!!!!
I believe mobile phones give youngsters a false sense of security..........
thats just my view of course....
cmd

Hi Lynette,

I think you are right. I beleive secondary school is early enough. Our 8 year old has taken one of ours if he goes to the park along the road just so he can ring us if he has a prob,


Cazxxx

My daughter has a mobile
but shes not allowed out without me .
she never goes out alone , just because some children have phones does not mean they actually go out alone .
my daughter uses hers for games and as an mp3 player and also a camera.
Rosex

Hell, we didn't even have a landline until I was 15 and it wasn't so long ago...only 1989. Kids don't need mobiles until they're old enough to earn enough money to pay their own bill/credit whether that be through pocket money or a paper round.

That said, their are decreasing numbers of public phones so there is a need for kids that have to travel long distances to school etc. I think they just make them a target. If they don't have one they get picked on for not having one, if they do have one they get picked on for not having the right one, if they do have the right one they get it nicked.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't but 8 is far too young.

My 12 year old granddaughter got her mobile when she started senior school,she has to get the bus to school so mum & dad thought she needed on i agree with them.
think 8 is far too young for a moblie just buy them a toy one
Love Jackie

oops!! i'm very much in the minority here then.....my kids have all got mobile phones..aged 8, 11 and 13....

the youngest got hers for her birthday in October and the middle one got hers last week for her birthday!

they are all on pay as you go ....and use them mainly for texting their pals or to fone me when they are at their dads!

Ive told my daughter she can have one when she's 9 and a half. But I wont let her take it outside the house til shes 10. Ideally it would be when shes about 13, BUT my son stays at his grans at weekends and he has a mobile to phone me from (he's 10) so I have to treat them the same. I worry about him getting mugged for it, even tho she lives in a very nice area.
I wouldnt let an 8 yr old have one.

If you give in to this one Mum, it won't be long before the next want comes along, she wont keep it up for long!

you would have laughed if you had seen what I saw from my kitchen window recently two little tots no more than 4/5 years old mums high heels on one had buggie with doll in and a mobile to her ear other had doll in her arms and phone to ear chatting away like old washer women....called other half and we rolled up double they looked so comical...Jean