First mobile for my son

So he’s just about finished juniors and heading up to the high school in August. We’re in the process of giving him more freedom, letting him bus into town with his mates etc. and it’s about time he got a phone I think. Was just going to go for the STW default Motorola g series but thought I’d ask before I buy.

Anything else worth considering in the sub-£150 market?

Whatever you give them, put the responsibility on them for excess costs and replacement.

Our three only lost one phone over the last 10 years. They had mid-range Android. Anything blingier, any damage, any loss – they bought it, not us. The one who lost/left his phone was without one for 6 weeks while he saved and bought a shitty second hand one…

Some of their friends, usually with much more expensive “keep up with the Jones’s” phones who had ‘free’ replacements went through multiple phones. All of which parents bankrolled freely. They dropped them, forgot them, took them canoeing etc. All because they didn’t have the responsibility for the device as much.

(My Redmi Note 10 Pro was waaaay better than my shiny new Pixel 7a.)

Our son was 11 a few months back, and so high school next year. We bought him a g14 for about £120. It’s absolutely fine. Not super fast (he’s discovered it struggles a bit with Pokemon Go) but does everything it needs to

We set really clear boundaries from the start:
– set it with Family link so we have control over what he installs.
– Golden rule is ‘no phones upstairs’ as we figure he’s less likely to do something untoward if he’s in clear view of us
– we have to know the PIN
– we can look at what’s on it any time, without warning.
– we’ve always had a ‘no screens at the table’ policy when eating.
– We haven’t set usage limits but we will if use starts to get too high

I know these may seen draconian to some, but it’s worked well for us so far. We’ve already had a few moments where we’ve had to have discussions about what a friend has said in a chat and how e deal with it, but he’s been really responsible with it so far.

Ask around to see whether there any ‘spare’ SH phones amongst family and friends ?  Go refurbished ?

Edit. All of above advice is good – Family Link is very helpful for finding lost phones

I’m addition to what submarined said – we had the password to the Google email/account until they were older/proved responsible.

Also look up family deals on Spotify etc. The main reason being when they are 18 the account becomes theirs.

I know too many people who set it all up on thier email or kids logged into their account – causing issues of losing playlists or game progress at 16-18 when accounts were handed over….

Yeah we already use family link/family safety on his computer so he’s used to having a time limit on things. We have family Spotify too so that should be ok. Good shout on setting up his own Google account though.

No second hand phones available as we tend to keep them until they’re well and truly dead then trade in for a new phone.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-69044426

This is gathering a lot of momentum in the teaching profession, with lots of research pointing to it being a very good thing. There’s no politics in this – coming from both the left and the right. I think in 5 years parents who give under 14s a smartphone will be looked at negatively.  If you need to know where they are, whack a tag on their bag.

But have you got it in you to be that parent that gives your child a brick? Obviously a lot easier and worthwhile if all parents in the area do the same thing at the same time. That’s why the campaigns (there are a number of them now, growing every week) are being led by local school leaders. If it moderately interests you it might be worth contacting the head of their new school and see if they are planning (or could be persuaded)  to jump on the bandwagon.

New Nokia 3310, £60, nearly indestructible, battery lasts ages when he inevitably forgets to charge it, not worth mugging him for it when he’s out with his mates.

My wife works in school and smart.phones are now the primary conduit for much of the bullying and nastines that goes one. We are very much onboard with the ‘no smart phones before 14’ campaign.

It’s not just the bullying (though obviously that’s a big issue), it’s the pretty hard science that children’s brains are not ready for the dopamine hits from phone use and the long term impact on mental health are significant. Lord knows we as adults are bad with phone addiction, but they are not mini mes, it’s a proper problem that we’re only really waking up to now.

Get a dumb phone. If you really must there are a few semi dumb phones that have WhatsApp but unfortunately they also have Facebook apps as well so I would go full dumb

I think in 5 years parents who give under 14s a smartphone will be looked at negatively

I’m thinking more about his social development and the fact that living in a rural community means his friends are spread out over a few villages and being able to contact each other over e.g. WhatsApp is probably better for him than being left out because we’re not letting him have a phone. We can control what apps he installs so there’s not going to be any Facebook/Tik Tok/Truth Social anywhere near him for a few years yet.

I do wonder if those articles/headteachers are looking for blanket bans because of the lowest common denominator parents who just let their kids do whatever they want from the point they can use a touchscreen.

What is depressing is that I teach in a primary in a pretty deprived area – over 40% of students are pupil premium.

But almost all the yr5 and yr6 children have smartphones – many from families that I know struggle to afford shoes/uniform/etc.

Unfortunately, many peoples’ priorities are very screwed!

My, nearly 11, daughter will be getting a brick when she goes to secondary. It’s already been discussed.

I’m thinking more about his social development and the fact that living in a rural community means his friends are spread out over a few villages and being able to contact each other over e.g. WhatsApp is probably better for him than being left out because we’re not letting him have a phone. We can control what apps he installs so there’s not going to be any Facebook/Tik Tok/Truth Social anywhere near him for a few years yet.

I do wonder if those articles/headteachers are looking for blanket bans because of the lowest common denominator parents who just let their kids do whatever they want from the point they can use a touchscreen.

Fair points.  And a good example why groups of parents taking joint action rather than individuals works so much better. If all his mates don’t have whatsapp, there is no whatsapp group to miss out on. The only thing I’d say is I’ve dealt with a ton on incidents where parents thought they knew what they were doing but turned out their cunning kids knew a bit more! Also, the number of parents who start with good intensions and then cave and mission creep takes over and have all sorts added. I’ve also dealt with too many issues where a whatsapp group of ‘mates’ of kids gets toxic fast – as long as you are not naive enough to think it’ll be anything like “I’ll meet you at 5.30 at the rec for a game of football, I’ll bring the jumpers for the goalposts” and it’ll more be used for ‘banter’ you are thinking in the right direction…..one kid’s banter is another one’s start of a school refuser problem.

There is probably a half way house where parent groups self support, or meet up of an evening with a member of the school’s it team and together come up with a list of agreed apps and are shown how to lock them down properly.

This is not something I’ve tried – can you whitelist specific websites on chrome on an android phone, rather than black list? It’s all very well preventing the download of apps, but kids and web developers are not daft – plenty of workarounds by accessing websites to effectively proxy apps instead of an installed app.

https://cdn.platform.next/Common/Items/Default/Default/ItemImages/3_4Ratio/AltItemShot/366×488/755910s.jpg

Forgotten how to insert image, but I was thinking of one of these…..

I think in 5 years parents who give under 14s a smartphone will be looked at negatively

What, like the ones now who give their kids Sur-rons?

And to add……if all the local kids are communicating in snap(chat) or DM in tiktok cos WhatsApp is for boomers, you going to approve those instead?

What, like the ones now who give their kids Sur-rons?

Maybe more like the parents who are currently complicit with their kids vaping.

WhatsApp is probably better for him than being left out because we’re not letting him have a phone.

On this,

WhatsApp requires a phone number. It does not require a phone. You could, if you wanted, get him a “dumb” phone (they’re called feature phones) and install WhatApp on a PC/Laptop.