Monday was the first day of middle school for my 11-year-old granddaughter. Anyone who has ever been through the middle school years knows, life’s about to change dramatically for everybody involved. My daughter found that out the minute my granddaughter arrived home.
“I’m the only one in school who doesn’t have a cell phone,” she complained. “Everybody has one. Why can’t I have one?”
My daughter had to remind her that she has an iPad – in fact two. So she is digitally connected, but somewhat more supervised than a cell phone allows. She also let her daughter know that her first cell phone came along with her driver’s license. It was only after there was a possibility that they could break down on the side of the road that we allowed our children to have cell phones. And even then, it was equipped only with emergency minutes so as not to encourage talking on the phone while driving. That was before texting.
But times are different now. So when is the right age to allow a child to have his or her own cell phone? And what restrictions are recommended to ensure safety in a brave, and sometimes dangerous, new digital age?
The only reason for giving them cell phones at that age (instead of waiting until college) is safety: if they need a ride/are going to be late/aren't at the appointed place at the appointed time/etc., voice contact is still (nearly) always possible. If worse comes to absolute worst, they can be tracked via the phone and eventually found. The minute the privilege of the cell phone gets abused though, it goes away and they don't get to go out places by themselves for a while. That means calling and asking PRIOR to changing plans or locations, or letting Mom and Dad know you're going to be late BEFORE you get home. Above all, it means ANSWERING WHEN MOM OR DAD CALL. Every. Time. (We understand if you're in the movie theater, but that's about it for exceptions.) Highly social high schoolers learn to live with those rules remarkably quickly when failure to do so results in a sudden and complete lack of of said social life outside the home. =D
Sadly, I've come to refer to it as our digital umbilical cord.
She is not bashing all teachers, she is bashing the ones that have specifically caused needless issues through their incompetence. I possess huge respect for educators in their professional capacity, but I am not naive enough to believe that 100.0% of them have my child's welfare at heart 100.0% of the time. Some few are downright useless, to the point of being dangerous. Unless you somehow miraculously know exactly what all of those teachers to whom B BUIE was referring were thinking, I would suggest not presuming to tell B BUIE anything except what YOU tried to do in such situations. Perhaps if they actually LISTENED to parents when they came in to discuss issues, instead of bashing them online...
For short term outages it's not as crucial, but I still worry a bit that OCHS, for instance, has gone to a VoIP system. Kill the power, and you've killed the office phones, and in such a situation the only source of information will be all the kids inside with their cell phones!
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What is the Right Age to Allow an Adult to Have a Cell Phone and Car Keys?