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At What Age Should a Child Have a Cell Phone?
- By Shawn Wilson
- Published October 25, 2008
- Cellphones
- Unrated
Shawn Wilson
This article was written by Shawn Wilson, a member of the customer support team at Datepad, where internet dating is always free. Datepad has a massive directory of informative dating articles along with a great list of dating site reviews on their dating blog.
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Well, I finally broke down and bought my 10-year-old son a cell phone yesterday. I saw it coming, and tried to resist for as long as I could but eventually I gave in.
I thought a 10 year old would be far too young to assume the responsibility of a cell phone. After all, whom do they need to call? Apparently, I don't live in the real world because it seems that he has plenty of people to talk to.
That's not to say that he is one of the first of his friends to get one, he is one of the LAST the second to last to be exact. He has one friend who owns an iPhone! Imagine that, I don't even have an iPhone!
But getting back to kids and cell phones. It seems that this is their preferred method of communication. The fact of the matter is kids today grow up around computer games, text messaging and basically any form of technical communication and their preferred method of communicating.
Even when they are face to face, they prefer to communicate texting each other while they are only a few feet away from each other. It's not the wave of the future any longer; it's happening right now and a cold reality for us parents!
What
cell phone did I get him? I shopped around of course but ultimately went with a smaller phone company that carried the LG Rumour that my son wanted so badly as it was the only phone that had a full keyboard. It's actually a really neat phone.
Not surprisingly, all phone companies more or less carried the same phones within the same price range. Save and except for the iPhone that is only carried by only one phone company in Canada for the time being. They were all comparable in price and offered more or less the same options, it more or less comes down to cell phone style than anything else.
As soon as we arrived home, my son was on the phone talking to his friends, calling his Dad and basically letting everyone know about his new phone and gave out his new number.
I had no idea that he was craving so much communication with others! He spent the night texting people and storing their info. At the very least, I thought to myself, he's learning new skills!
The reality is, he's growing up a lot faster than I want him to and getting his own cell phone is another right of passage that he has crossed, becoming a little bit more independent ever day. Did the cell phone do that? No, its just kids today.
I thought a 10 year old would be far too young to assume the responsibility of a cell phone. After all, whom do they need to call? Apparently, I don't live in the real world because it seems that he has plenty of people to talk to.
That's not to say that he is one of the first of his friends to get one, he is one of the LAST the second to last to be exact. He has one friend who owns an iPhone! Imagine that, I don't even have an iPhone!
But getting back to kids and cell phones. It seems that this is their preferred method of communication. The fact of the matter is kids today grow up around computer games, text messaging and basically any form of technical communication and their preferred method of communicating.
Even when they are face to face, they prefer to communicate texting each other while they are only a few feet away from each other. It's not the wave of the future any longer; it's happening right now and a cold reality for us parents!
What
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Not surprisingly, all phone companies more or less carried the same phones within the same price range. Save and except for the iPhone that is only carried by only one phone company in Canada for the time being. They were all comparable in price and offered more or less the same options, it more or less comes down to cell phone style than anything else.
As soon as we arrived home, my son was on the phone talking to his friends, calling his Dad and basically letting everyone know about his new phone and gave out his new number.
I had no idea that he was craving so much communication with others! He spent the night texting people and storing their info. At the very least, I thought to myself, he's learning new skills!
The reality is, he's growing up a lot faster than I want him to and getting his own cell phone is another right of passage that he has crossed, becoming a little bit more independent ever day. Did the cell phone do that? No, its just kids today.