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What Age Should We Give Our Kid A Cell Phone?

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i would say when the kid reach 15 years of age. then that would old enough. but younger that age is not really advisable to let them have the celphone. since they are going to play with it and consume too much of their time. and we would not want them have their attention on their cellphone only. we want that they will put more attention to their studies and that they will concwentrate on getting good grades. and enjoying other things like sports and not to worry about texting their friends and they have nothing really the can do much about the cellphone. snice they don't really need it at that age. it will be more like a toy for them. it's an expensive toy for that case.

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I think 11. My brother is that age and he really does need it. He goes off all the time and without it we have no way of contacting him or knowing if he is safe.It's a small price to pay for our sanity/his safety.

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I agree with you-I was about 11 when I got my first mobile phone. And my mother didn't have to worry where the hell am I since she could always call me. And about playing with it-well if they don't have a gsm to play with they will either watch television or play on the computer. At least they get used to better technologies from an earlier age. Of course there should be some restricions about calling and if you are so worried you can at least delete the games on the telephone B) But connection and safety are important so as I said 10-11 is a good age for giving kids mobile phones B)15 is waaaay to late. I mean in our contry nowadays 14-15 years old behave more like 17-18 years old and they are using stuff like that a lot earlier :P

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I am speaking here with experience as a kid myself. I got my first handphone though it was kind of faulty at age 12. Right now, i am thirteen, i have a Sony Ericsson handphone in which i use it to inform my parents if i will have to attend to some problems in school like studying in extra revision lessons. Though my parents may be restrictive, it was afterall just for security concerns and to curb their worries.Hey guys, handphones, we use them too, to store music and retrieve them to hear whenever we want. This cures boredom for 25% of my day wherein i do reading for the rest of the time in my free time!

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Age is not a constraint here i guess...If situation demands and if they are matured enough to handle them, they understand their purpose they can be given one. But again...lot of discretion should be already taught to them when it comes to handling things on their own.

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Obviously, a cell phone is a tool which a kid do not require, at least usually, but even if it could prove to be useful, we or you all should know the risks of a child using a cell phone, which are pretty much the same as for the adults, except the fact that the kid would have access to the internet, it would be expose to radio waves which could damage him fisicaly more then it does to the adult bodies because kids are more fragile, plus, kids should not have access to certain objects/tools until they are 16 years old at least, but it is better just when they are 18 years old, until then they should be educated of the risks, of the benefits and the advantages and disadvantages of using cell phones, one more risk is that anyone can call him, and if a pedophile man/worman calls him, is it not a very big risk, is it not the biggest risk, or even a murderer, a raper or a person that will want to trade the kid for money, or just kill him for revenge?There are a lot of risks, kids should not have cell phones, never!

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Um, okay, well I would probably say when they enter high school (around 14 here in the US) is probably a good time, because if they're going out and need to stay in contact with their parents a lot then it's pretty handy. If your kid plays a lot of sports then it's probably a good idea for them to have a cell phone. Honestly, though, even in high school a lot of kids don't need one, they just get one because they're spoiled.

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I believe cell phones should be given to children who require it (such as kids who are constantly on trips and stuff and you want to get a hold of them), but not so they can get it just to talk to friends. I think the child should be ready for the responsibility when they get the cell phone. I didn't even really get my own cell phone until I was 16/17 (when I started driving) and that was because my parents needed a way to get a hold of me. So I don't think age should be set as the limit, but more on the need of the parents to get a hold of the child.

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thump, it shouldn't be a question of age, but when you let them out of the house by themslves. when they are old enough to leave their house to ride the bus or go to the mall or ride their bikes to the store. THAT is when they are old enough for a cell phone. a cell phone is good for two things. communicating socially and for emergencies. so when they are old enough to leave the house on their own, i qould suggest giving them a cel phone for emergencies only at first. this way you can teach the responsibility. if they abuse that privlidge, don't let them leave the house....they will learn eventually haha. their first cell phone, most will just be happy about showing it off anyway but they will have it for emergencies and you will be rest assured that they have that way of contacting you if there is trouble. parents....especially mom's are worry warts and sometimes over protective as it is B)if your child hasn't left the home by him/herself then there is no reason for a cell phone now is there. they can always use the house phone :Pwhen my mom bought my neice her fisrt cell phone, she was in jr. high. at first, she mainly used it to call home if she wanted to stay later at school and to tell my mom to pick her up later than usual. THEN it grew to using it in the house when someone else was using the phone. she's now in high school, very responsible and still loves her cell phone like all teenage girls.so my suggestion is that if they are responsible in using their original minutes just for emergencies at first, buy some minutes for their birthday and christmas so they can start using their phone for socializing too. always make sure they are responsible which means they should always know how many minutes they have to leave some over in case of an emergency.before you know it, they will be graduating from high school, going away for college and moving out and just coming by when they need to steal a couple cans of soup and for christmas and thanksgiving B) but....parents dread that day and they like to ignore that part of life until it happens....and then go in to a deep depression when it doeswell, i am getting a little off topic so will end this post here.

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I'll say 15-16. That way they're old enough to find a little part time job to pay for it and become more of a responsible person. I'm only 18 and just got my first cell phone not long ago, and sometime I wish I could had one when I was 15-16 so I wouldn't have to go to a pay phone to call home so someone would come pick me up. Or to always ask a friend if I could make a quick phone call him so someone could come pick me up.But then yeah, it really depend if you kid is outgoing or not. If they're not they don't really need one. If they are then I guess they'll need one so they could call home if they don't have a ride back home. It just depend on how you see it.

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In my honest opinion, there really shouldn't be a chosen age as to when a child should be allowed to own a mobile phone because I personally know a ten year old child who is more responsible than almost any sixteen year old child around here. When it comes down to responsibility and being able to keep the minutes/texts down, the parent just needs to know that they can trust the child and that the child will not lose the cell phone. It would be bad to lose the cell phone just for someone else to be able to rank up a few extra minutes before you can have it disabled.I personally received my first cell phone about three months ago, but up until then I never really needed one because I never really did anything. I was told I was responsible enough, I just didn't do that much outside of the area until recently.

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When they are in their late teens is probbaly the best, since that is when they get to have friends and so on and so on. Any age younger would just be stupid as they'd misuse it a lot, and who do they have to call at the age of 9 10 or 11. lol, so I'd say 14 or 15 is your best bet.

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