What age is acceptable for a kid to get a mobile phone?

Homer said:
Same sanctimonious people, different subject. There isn’t an age. Maturity of the child, understanding of both parent and child of the technology and need to remotely communicate are some of the factors.
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Bloody awful thread - just full of old people preaching (not unusual on here) - though I was trying not to comment

Then saw. "Anyone giving their child a mobile before they age of 14 is a terrible parent"...

Jeez, wtf and eh?
 


I got a second hang iphone 12 for my 8 year old a few months back. Part of the reasoning was that there are no kids in our street or even in the near vicinity where i’d be happy for him to go out. The other factor was that we’re a small family, he has no siblings. Through the ios apple stuff i tightly control what he does on the phone and set the app limits which is really useful. What i will say is that when he is on the phone with face time it’s usually with a group of lasses from his class playing roblox… no other lads, just lasses.

Even now i still don’t like that he has one, i honestly hate them.
 
de Ruyter said:
Bloody awful thread - just full of old people preaching (not unusual on here) - though I was trying not to comment

Then saw. "Anyone giving their child a mobile before they age of 14 is a terrible parent"...

Jeez, wtf and eh?
Click to expand...
Before the ages of 13-14 yeah phone with full Internet access is terrible parenting.. most parents known this deep down btw but they end up falling into the pressure as other kids in their class have them too.
 
I think my youngest was 9, it was during the second lockdown. The first one he had no social contact with any kids. A few of us parents got in touch with each other, give the kids second hand mobiles, got them set up on a whatsapp group together and they spent the second one chatting to each other while online gaming.

He is a fair distance from a lot of his friends so it was useful when he was first starting to venture more than a mile from home. Then now his secondary school is a train journey away and it has been essential, given the amount of times the train is cancelled.

Got google family link going so I can track the location, usage, app installs, remote lock the phone. I check web history and for in the house stuff, we have various web filters. Though he is getting to the age where I’m probably going to need to up my game, in a bit of an arms race.
 

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