Because I told my DD I would--first cell phone poll :)

[Scarlett]

6 minutes ago, MercyA said:

I guess I was thinking of those whose children are in their mid-20's now. It was a very different world even 10 years ago when they were 15, YWIM? 

Maybe there was a better way to do the poll. 🙂 It was late. 😉 

No I get it....times change.  I remember my niece telling my son SHE didn’t  get a phone until she was 16 and bought it herself. He replied, ‘yeah but you grew up in the 90s’.  😂

[Forget-Me-Not]

My oldest two got smartphones as 8th grade grad gifts. Oldest was headed to dual enrollment classes on the local CC campus so we felt it was a need at that point. Second-oldest does a combo of home and on-campus through our charter (or she did before the pandemic) so it was also nice to have a way to text her.
 

My youngest two are both not to that age yet, so we’ll see. 

[klmama]

Those of you who mentioned limiting what the phone can access, how do you do that?  

[Tanaqui]

Normally I'd say kids should get their own phones when they're traveling around a lot, or else by high school. It's not like when we were kids, with payphones all over the place!

But being stuck at home... that calls for a way to contact friends too. One that doesn't mean pestering Mom and Dad.

[Arctic Bunny]

25 minutes ago, klmama said:

Those of you who mentioned limiting what the phone can access, how do you do that?  

With Screen Time settings on iPhone, for us.

[rebcoola]

For limiting things it's pretty easy iPhones have parent controls built in called screentime.  It let's you control apps, websites , time limits they just added things so you can limit by the contact eg you can call mom anytime but friends only from 3-9pm.

Other phones either have their own controls or you can by apps like life360 to achieve the same goals.

[Guest]

Dumb phone at 10, smart phone at 12, because she was starting college classes and there was an assumption of access to internet pretty much at all times.

[LinRTX]

All 4 of mine got there first phone when they got their licence, at 17. 

[J-rap]

6 hours ago, MercyA said:

I guess I was thinking of those whose children are in their mid-20's now. It was a very different world even 10 years ago when they were 15, YWIM? 

Maybe there was a better way to do the poll. 🙂 It was late. 😉 

Boy, that's for sure!  So much has changed in ten years.  When my ds was a senior in high school, he went on a choir trip and only one person in the whole crew of 80 had a cell phone, and it was a flip phone.  I think my kids were the last generation to grow up without cell phones.  I'm actually kind of glad about that.  But, it is what it is.

My younger kids had cell phones earlier than my oldest ds.  We based it on need.  When they were starting to do things on their own, or be in activities away from home where they might need to call me, or when communication via groups they were involved in happened through cell phones, that's when we let them have one.  That was generally around age 14 or 15, but even then, times were different.  Those were still flip phones and not smart phones.

I honestly don't know how I would handle it today.

[Amy in NH]

21 hours ago, MercyA said:

At what age did your children receive their first cell phone, for their exclusive use? Let's restrict the poll to your children who are currently 18 years of age or younger. Please choose the average age if you have more than one child with a cell phone. 

Thank you! 😉

(BTW, we are planning on getting her a phone before too long, but she doesn't know that. Shh!)

 

Our kids each got their own phone when they were doing activities which required us to drop off/pick up, and we needed to be able to be in touch when we weren't with them.

[StaceyinLA]

Well my kids are all adults, so I didn't vote in your poll, but they got phones around age 10-11.

I just got my grandson one for his bday - he'll be 9, but mainly because they go to their dad's, and dd just wanted them to have a single device if they felt they needed to contact her at any point that maybe their dad was asleep or something. We pretty much disabled everything other than a few games, and the calling/texting features. We also limited texts during later hours to only their mom, dad and me.

[hopeallgoeswell]

My kids have always been homeschooled and don't go to events that don't include me or a trusted adult they feel very comfortable with.  Now that they are older, when they go to sleepovers or to the park around the corner, I just give them my cell phone since we have a landline they can reach me or I can reach them on.  My oldest is the only one with a phone, and she got it for her 17th birthday.  All of my kids, minus the 17 yo now, use my cell phone for texting friends.  If they had been away from me during the day, they would have had a basic phone with a few pre-programmed numbers when they were old enough to use it.