Should Children Have Unmonitored Cell Phones?

[Pengwuino]

Ok so at what point do you draw the line when it comes to children having full blown full featured unmonitored cell phones?

Personally, I'd make cell phones equivalent to alcohol. You'd need to be 21 to own one, excessive use in public would be an arrestable offense, and giving a cell phone to a minor would be a large fine. You could also get your kids taken away for over-cellphoning.

But that's just me

Oh and the poll is what YOU would do, not what you would like for other people to do.

 

[Smurf]

I agree. *gasp*

I hate having one.

 

[Pengwuino]

Wow first time I've seen a reply to a poll thread before the poll was even put up

 

[Smurf]

there's no 21+ option.

 

[mattmns]

Yeah I agree it is outrageous now-a-days. Just for emergencies right? That is why my son/daughter needs text messaging, and a cellphone that takes pictures.

 

[mattmns]

A poll thread? Man you are slow!Hmm, what exactly are we answering here? What would it mean if I were to choose 16-18? Does that mean that I would be ok with a 16-18 year old having a cell phone? Or does that mean that you must be at least 16-18 to have a cell phone?

 

[Pengwuino]

Well basically if you think "oh I'd be comfortable with my kid having a cell phone once he reaches 10" then you'd select the range that 10 years is. I couldn't put every single number so i made little ranges :P

 

[Moonbear]

OMG! Smurf and Pengwuino have agreed again! *runs to the window* Nope, not even a full moon.

Excessive cell phoning (a new verb I see) should be a felony!

In terms of unmonitored, unrestricted use...it would depend on the kid. Some are probably responsible enough by the time they are 15 or 16, but others still aren't responsible cell phone users yet when they hit 30. When they turn 18, they are legally adults, so as long as they are paying their own bills, then they are free to do as they choose (rules are a little different if they're still mooching off their parents at 18). Until then, it's a privilege granted by the parents...if you abuse it, you lose it.

 

[mattmns]

Well basically if you think "oh I'd be comfortable with my kid having a cell phone once he reaches 10" then you'd select the range that 10 years is. I couldn't put every single number so i made little ranges :P

Ok, that is more clear

 

[mattmns]

Hmm, so far 100% of the people agree with me.

 

[Pengwuino]

Well so far this is rather hilarious since my 9 year old niece wants a cell phone already

 

[Cosmo16]

Im 17 and get by fine without one. however, I also don't have a car. However, I choose 12-15, depending on the kid, at that age, it might start to become good if they start using one.

 

[mattmns]

She's in what 4th grade? And she has yet to have a cell phone? Geeze her parents are mean! She must be the most un-popular kid at school.

 

[Pengwuino]

She must be the most un-popular kid at school.

The scariest part about this is that that very well might be true for that exact reason. I once drove my friend to pickup her siblings from elementary school and i saw some kids with cell phones and I am just like "... my god... isn't this one of the signs of the Armaggedon?

 

[Moonbear]

A 9-year old?! At 9, I still had to ask my parents for permission to use the phone...the ONE phone, with the rotary dial, in the kitchen, where everyone could overhear the entire conversation. That rule applied until I was in high school, when I finally got my own phone in my room at around 16 (AFTER my parents were certain they had listened in on enough conversations between me and my first "real" boyfriend...we had a lot of conversations about physics homework ...what else can you discuss when your parents are listening in?)

 

[pattylou]

No cell phones for my kids from me. that means they'll be out of the house before they get one... 22?.

If they need a cell phone in order to call one of us parents in an emergency (not a problem as yet but maybe when they're older) they'll get mine or husband's for the occasion only. Like if they're going on a hike with some friends or something.

We don't have cell phones yet either. Who needs em.

 

[Pengwuino]

Sure sure moonbear, and let me guess, you had to walk 15 miles in the snow to the phone

 

[Moonbear]

Im 17 and get by fine without one. however, I also don't have a car. However, I choose 12-15, depending on the kid, at that age, it might start to become good if they start using one.

I'd probably get one for my kid when they got their first car since you can't find payphones anymore if you break down. I might get one for a younger teen (15 or 16) if they were very responsible and involved in extracurricular activities to make it easier to call when they were ready to get picked up to come home (if they weren't very responsible, I wouldn't be allowing them to participate in many extracurricular activities anyway...that's another privilege they'd have to earn).

Edit: I should add that if I got a phone for a kid of mine, it would have very limited functions. They wouldn't be text messaging all day, or calling all their friends. Ideally, it would be programmed to do nothing but call MY cellphone, and it WOULD be taken away at the first sign of abuse.

 

[cronxeh]

That rule applied until I was in high school, when I finally got my own phone in my room at around 16 (AFTER my parents were certain they had listened in on enough conversations between me and my first "real" boyfriend...we had a lot of conversations about physics homework ...what else can you discuss when your parents are listening in?)

boy oh boy... was this back in the 70's

 

[motai]

Sure sure moonbear, and let me guess, you had to walk 15 miles in the snow to the phone

Not to mention uphill both ways...

 

[Moonbear]

Sure sure moonbear, and let me guess, you had to walk 15 miles in the snow to the phone

Of course not! It was 15 miles in freezing rain, barefoot, to stand at a phone booth, without a jacket or umbrella, while the cars drove past splashing mud.

I really did grow up in an era when most homes only had one phone, two at most. Nobody had privacy on the phone.

 

[Moonbear]

boy oh boy... was this back in the 70's

80s. *deducts one GOOBF card from cronxeh*

 

[cronxeh]

80s. *deducts one GOOBF card from cronxeh*

i SO saw that coming!

cmon Moony you know you're too darn young to react like that

 

[Moonbear]

cmon Moony you know you're too darn young to react like that

Oh...alright...*shoves GOOBF card back into cronxeh's hard drive*

 

[cronxeh]

Oh...alright...*shoves GOOBF card back into cronxeh's hard drive*

Oh hey! Be gentle now, tender pushes, not some grunt shoving

 

[moose]

I think 14 is a good age, but the 14 year old must pay all expenses excluding voice service, so the kid would have to pay for all his/her text messaging, blah blah. Really depends on the kid, like I had a cell phone at 13, I rarely used text messages (maybe 3 a month)... The most I ever talked on it in public was probably 5 minutes, and the most I ever talked on it at the age of 13 was during the summer in the middle of the night for 3 hours though it was a three way call... Erm, what was I getting at? Oh yeah, depends on the person

 

[Pengwuino]

I think 14 is a good age, but the 14 year old must pay all expenses excluding voice service, so the kid would have to pay for all his/her text messaging, blah blah.

which effectively means 17

 

[cefarix]

I was 16 when I first came to the university. Seeing as I was away from home, and the only cheap and easy way to communicate was a cell phone, my parents got me one. So I had my first cell phone at the age of 16. What's wrong with that?

 

[FredGarvin]

I don't think most adults should have cell phones, let alone a 12 year old.

 

[Cosmo16]

cefarix- Now you are a very speacial case indeed.

 

[moose]

which effectively means 17

Yes, yes it would

Speaking of cell phones
http://craftsrv1.epfl.ch/research/mathme/demo.html
that would be fun to havehttp://craftsrv1.epfl.ch/research/mathme/images/ssMatheMe-B.jpg

 

[Evo]

As a parent, I want my child to have one so that "I" can call them to check on them. I gave cell phones to both my daughters for that reason and it really saved me a LOT of worry. It also enabled them to call me and let me know if there were any changes of plans, maybe they decided not to stay as long and wanted me to pick them up early, maybe a friend decided to leave early and they wanted to know if they could leave with their mom.

Payphones aren't always around and my kids didn't always carry change.

They do market special phones for young children that can only be pre-programmed to dial certain numbers and 911. I think it's a must have for children.

Just wait until you have kids. I cannot put a price on the peace of mind it gave me. Of course my daughter uses it to call and check on me constantly, but that's ok.

Not to mention the peace of mind knowing that if the child of Evo's car breaks down, she can call for help.

Of course, the safety of my children is the most important thing to me. I told the child of Evo I was going to enable GPS on her phone so I could track her movements (that's available on most cell phones now)

 

[Moonbear]

I don't know. I think if I felt I still needed to call and check up on kids so often, I wouldn't be letting them out of my sight in the first place. They shouldn't be out roaming the streets, they should be somewhere that has a phone anyway. Maybe I would have one to loan them when they would be going someplace that they might need it. For example, if they go to the mall or a movie and need to call if they want to be picked up earlier than planned, they'll have the phone to call out, but I wouldn't call them unless they were late, in which case it would be the last time they were allowed out on their own. Afterall, when I was that age, we relied on payphones...we could call our parents but they couldn't call us, and I think I'd want to give my own kids that same amount of freedom, assuming they earn it the way I did, with the required lessons on responsibility.

 

[Gale]

when i was like 14 i think, we had just a "kid phone." we were all pretty young, but we had the cell there for when we were at sports, and since we were all at the same school, we only needed one for all three of us. course, i ended up losing it when we went to a play at town hall one afternoon. so, about a year later, i was out a lot and wanted my own cell, so i paid to replace it and then i got my own.

then we also got a new kid phone for my other sibs, which eventually became my sister, and then my brother also just got one, and he's now 15.

We were all active kids, and fairly responsible, so i think it worked out well having our cell phones at 15/16.

my friends sister got a cell phone at 16 though, and racked the phone bill up to 300 her first month, and couldn't pay it. so... she didn't have a phone for long...

 

[Evo]

Ah Moonbear, that's the entire point of giving your child a cell phone...CONTROL. MUWAHAHAHA!

You can't imagine how handy it is. I can call her when she's at the pool, at a school football game, at the movies (oops), outside talking to friends. I can reach her when she's at the mall. It gives us both freedom.

I really liked the mall thing. I would often agree to pick her and her friends up and as I approached the mall, I would call and let them know to head for the exit and be waiting for me. FABULOUS!

Because of cell phones, there are fewer and fewer pay phones, and a lot don't work (believe me, I know). Also, she doesn't have to be standing in a strange place alone at a payphone.

Plus, she's not dumb and doesn't abuse her phone.

edit: Thanks Gale! SCHOOL FOOTBALL GAMES...that alone is enough reason to give your child a phone. I can't count the hours I saved calling her and telling them where in the parking lot I was stuck.

 

[Pengwuino]

You can't imagine how handy it is. I can call her when she's at the pool, at a school football game, at the movies (oops), outside talking to friends. I can reach her when she's at the mall. It gives us both freedom.
I really liked the mall thing. I would often agree to pick her and her friends up and as I approached the mall, I would call and let them know to head for the exit and be waiting for me. FABULOUS!

So YOU'RE the reason people are on their cell phones 24 hours a day

 

[Gale]

evo and i think alike. i don't know where the rest of you are from... but they're so convienient and its not hard to make sure your kid doesn't abuse them. texting is convienient for your friends cause you can talk without phones ringing so you can be in quiet places. pix isn't quite as useful per se, but it sure is fun!

i think the biggest problem with cell phones are when people use them in the car. (whozum!) otherwise they're really good to have around.

 

[Moonbear]

Ah Moonbear, that's the entire point of giving your child a cell phone...CONTROL. MUWAHAHAHA!
You can't imagine how handy it is. I can call her when she's at the pool, at a school football game, at the movies (oops), outside talking to friends. I can reach her when she's at the mall. It gives us both freedom.

I just think, "What would I do if it was my mom calling me?" Yep, I'd have the ringer off..."oops mom, didn't hear it, the ringer must have gotten turned off accidentally somehow."

I really liked the mall thing. I would often agree to pick her and her friends up and as I approached the mall, I would call and let them know to head for the exit and be waiting for me. FABULOUS!

Oh, see, I grew up with the rules, "Meet me at the mall entrance at 5:00, not a moment later," which meant we better be there at 4:55 so as not to risk being late. I think I was late once, and the agony of listening to my mom lecture about how worried she was that we were late and she didn't know where we were, etc, was enough to keep me from ever being late again. My friends were the same way. Once, while going to college, some friends from HS were going to meet up one weekend, and one of my friends was on time...that's when we realized how bad we were that we were actually worrying about her because she was on time instead of 10 minutes early!

Because of cell phones, there are fewer and fewer pay phones, and a lot don't work (believe me, I know). Also, she doesn't have to be standing in a strange place alone at a payphone.

I wouldn't have my kid going to places where they might have to be in a strange place alone. Yes, the lack of payphones does seem to force the need to have cell phones. I hate that.

Plus, she's not dumb and doesn't abuse her phone.

That's important. Some kids are more responsible than others (my first comment in the thread). If you have a very responsible kid, it won't be a problem to give them a phone, they won't abuse it. But, even with my sister and myself, we were raised by the same parents, but like night and day in terms of responsibility. My sister would have been calling everyone on it all day if she had one in school, while I'd have been hesitant to even call my mom on it for fear of spending a penny more than I needed to.

edit: Thanks Gale! SCHOOL FOOTBALL GAMES...that alone is enough reason to give your child a phone. I can't count the hours I saved calling her and telling them where in the parking lot I was stuck.

See, another reason to not like football. I don't know, I never went to school football games. I don't even know who did other than the football players and the cheerleaders. I'm not even sure anyone ever knew when the games were other than homecoming, and that was only because there was a week of other activities leading up to it and the homecoming dance that everyone attended.

 

[Evo]

I'd adopt Gale in a hearbeat. :!)

Yes Pengwuino, I promote cell phone use.

It's funny, the Child of Evo sleeps like a rock. Nothing wakes her up. She doesn't have to be at school until 9:30am, so I am long gone before she has to get up. She sleeps through the alarm half the time. I will get calls from the school saying that they've been calling her cell phone for two hours trying to wake her up without an answer and just want to ask if I know if she's sick or just sleeping.

 

[moose]

Moonbeeeee, is that rebelious behaviour I smell?
"I just think, "What would I do if it was my mom calling me?" Yep, I'd have the ringer off..."oops mom, didn't hear it, the ringer must have gotten turned off accidentally somehow.""
:D

Honestly though, I grew up with kids who had cell phones, whenever their parents called, they DID pick up, but made up excuses or lied about where they are if it was something of that nature... So, if their mom said "i need you here in 10 minutes", my firend was usually there in 20 minutes, so there was a reason for the phone in the first place.

EDIT: why am I still on pf :*( I should be studying for tomorow's history and biology test!

 

[Pengwuino]

It's funny, the Child of Evo sleeps like a rock. Nothing wakes her up. She doesn't have to be at school until 9:30am, so I am long gone before she has to get up. She sleeps through the alarm half the time. I will get calls from the school saying that they've been calling her cell phone for two hours trying to wake her up without an answer and just want to ask if I know if she's sick or just sleeping.

They have her cell phone number?!??! outrageous!

 

[Moonbear]

I'm more shocked that the school would bother to call to give a kid a wake-up call! That's not their job. And, yeah, if she's late, don't call her, call her mother! What if she was playing hooky? So, they call her cell phone and she tells them she's late because she overslept the alarm clock, and the parents never know she's showing up late?

I'm bad about oversleeping my alarm, but I sure don't expect anyone I work with to call and wake me up. I just set it early enough that I wake up in time, or set a few extra alarms so I can't sleep through ALL of them.

Once I was in high school, my mom left before I did in the morning, but she made sure my sister and I were both awake before she left (when nothing else worked, she blasted country music on the stereo! She's a mean, mean, mean mommy! ) They started the elementary schools the earliest so parents could wait with their young kids at the bus stops before needing to leave for work.

 

[Evo]

They have her cell phone number?!??! outrageous!

Well of course they do! It's how they can reach her!

Funny, sometimes I forget and call her during school and she'll answer and we'll be talking and then I hear her saying something to her teacher and I"ll say "oh, you're in class, I'll let you go" and she'll say, "oh, no, that's ok we're not doing anything, he was just asking me about something". She's in one of those alternative schools. It's the best school in the world though, I wish they had those when I was a kid. I think there will be 20 kids in her graduating class. Only 92 kids in the entire high school. It's an experiment, part of the public school system, they're very progressive here. Her older sister also got in. You have to write an essay on why you should be there and pass a bunch of interviews. It is so cool.

Moonbear, it's not a normal school, and they know she can be trusted.

 

[Pengwuino]

What kinda weirdo place do you live Evo

 

[Moonbear]

Moonbeeeee, is that rebelious behaviour I smell?
"I just think, "What would I do if it was my mom calling me?" Yep, I'd have the ringer off..."oops mom, didn't hear it, the ringer must have gotten turned off accidentally somehow.""
:D

Just a little bit. I was actually a good kid, so when my mom would check up on me too often or question me about what I was doing, it really annoyed me because I hadn't done anything to deserve mistrust.

Honestly though, I grew up with kids who had cell phones, whenever their parents called, they DID pick up, but made up excuses or lied about where they are if it was something of that nature... So, if their mom said "i need you here in 10 minutes", my firend was usually there in 20 minutes, so there was a reason for the phone in the first place.

That's not a reason for a phone, that's a reason to not let them out without a parent with them.

EDIT: why am I still on pf :*( I should be studying for tomorow's history and biology test!

Hey, yeah, especially for that biology test, or else you're going to have to answer to me! Good luck.

 

[moose]

Hey, yeah, especially for that biology test, or else you're going to have to answer to me! Good luck.

I was thinking, what if someone on PF happened to be one of my teachers

That would be odd!

So... how about those inducible operons eh?oh and
"Just a little bit. I was actually a good kid, so when my mom would check up on me too often or question me about what I was doing, it really annoyed me because I hadn't done anything to deserve mistrust.
"

well, with a cell phone your mom wouldn't have to check up on you so often because you would always be reachable ;)

 

[Moonbear]

well, with a cell phone your mom wouldn't have to check up on you so often because you would always be reachable ;)

Are you kidding? Do you know how long it took to train my mom to stop calling daily when I was in college? I learned the joy of answering machines then. I just let the machine take her calls...I was out of the room a lot it seems You know, in class, studying at the library, attending club meetings, that sort of thing. I certainly wasn't sitting right there next to the phone while ignoring my mother. If I had a cell phone, I'd have never managed to train her properly! She now understands, call once a month only if I don't reply to her emails. It works much better.

 

[matthyaouw]

If I had a child, I'd want them to have a cellphone when they start going out by themselves unsupervised, just so I can get in touch if nessecary.. I voted 12-15.