I have kids who will soon be teens. They don't have phones yet, but I can see the decision looming: my ability to communicate / coordinate with them plus the fact that a huge portion of their social life will migrate online on one hand vs. all of the dangers on the other.
This is why a lot of parents start with smart watches or restricted phones. They try to get the communication / coordination benefits without the online social risks. But that only lasts so long.
I'm not sure how I'll navigate it. Probably not by saying "no to that stuff until 18".
I am not going to address the broad set of questions here but I want to point out that two items exist:
1) No-data SIM cards ... they call and text only ...
2) imessage only access point - fairly trivial to set up.
So ... a child can be given a phone - even a smartphone - and it can't be used as a social media device when the family wifi turns off. Further, you can heavily restrict family wifi without curtailing normal phone talking if you have an imessage/facetime only access point.
Again, no magic bullets here but some tools that you might find useful.
I put off letting my kids have a phone until 14. They had tablets before that. If I could have done it all over again, they wouldn't have gotten any kind of device until at least 16. At best they would have gotten a flip phone.
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I have kids who will soon be teens. They don't have phones yet, but I can see the decision looming: my ability to communicate / coordinate with them plus the fact that a huge portion of their social life will migrate online on one hand vs. all of the dangers on the other.
This is why a lot of parents start with smart watches or restricted phones. They try to get the communication / coordination benefits without the online social risks. But that only lasts so long.
I'm not sure how I'll navigate it. Probably not by saying "no to that stuff until 18".
"I'm not sure how I'll navigate it."
I am not going to address the broad set of questions here but I want to point out that two items exist:
1) No-data SIM cards ... they call and text only ...
2) imessage only access point - fairly trivial to set up.
So ... a child can be given a phone - even a smartphone - and it can't be used as a social media device when the family wifi turns off. Further, you can heavily restrict family wifi without curtailing normal phone talking if you have an imessage/facetime only access point.
Again, no magic bullets here but some tools that you might find useful.
I put off letting my kids have a phone until 14. They had tablets before that. If I could have done it all over again, they wouldn't have gotten any kind of device until at least 16. At best they would have gotten a flip phone.