Almost every adult in Australia has a mobile phone and most of them are smart phones connected to the Internet 24/7. Their convenient and powerful but when is it time to let your children have mobile phones?
Well spoiler alert … There is no one-time of course but there are some important things you should consider before taking this significant step. Many parents don’t think too hard about it. Their phone company offers them an upgraded phone and it seems natural to pass the perfectly functional older phone down the line to one of the children.
Here is some things that you should consider when making your decision:
Why Do You Need It?
The most important question is always the WHY question because that will help you determine all the others following. Most people are interested in their child having a mobile phone for security and safety reasons … But this is a two edged sword as we will see later on. In truth, it’s mostly about convenience so that we can communicate any changes of plans or if they forget something etc
Some families need this more than others because of shared custody arrangements, work demands and distance from school and other activities. Typically children start to be more independent in their travel schooling arrangements from year 5 or 6 so many families begin to consider the phone question around then. For others it can be well into high school before the issue is even raised.
Since having a phone also brings with it certain problems and issues, it can be a good idea to wait until you are really convinced before taking this step.
Cost
Phones are not toys and they can cost quite a lot … both the devices themselves and the ongoing costs of using them. We’ve all seen the horror stories on the current affair shows where someone accidentally runs up a huge bill and ends up in strife.
There are basically two types of plans to choose from … post-paid and pre-paid. You’re probably familiar with these so I won’t go into them too much but suffice to say that a prepaid phone give you more control against overspending because you’re essentially setting a limit by how much credit you put on the phone. The downside is that the credit usually expires meaning it costs you even if you don’t use it often.
Personally I love the smaller phone companies who seem to be able to offer the best deals … for example Aldi, Virgin Mobile and Amaysim. They all use the Optus and Telstra networks but the deals are often more competitive.
Should You Get Data
It’s no secret that the Internet for all its wonderful convenience, is also a great danger. All of the people that you worry might be hanging around at shopping centres and public places with bad intentions absolutely are with those same intentions. I’m not telling you anything that you don’t know and neither am I try to scare you but attend any child protection unit training and you’ll discover that this is true.
Once your child has a device that is connected to the Internet then your range of responsibilities as a parent increases massively. This goes for iPods and tablets in the home as well as computers but at least those things are in the home and are more likely to be monitored. Online phones can access all sorts of information and people well outside of an environment that you can keep it on.
On top of that, the more important threats are to your child from people they know. Cyber-bullying often happens via data connected phones … using apps that make it harder to track the offenders. Texts and calls are more easily monitored.
Obviously this is something you need to decide for your situation but a phone that can make calls and send texts is significantly safer in a smart phone connected the Internet and maybe a good first step.
Radiation on Young Brains
So far the official advice is that using a mobile phone does not increase your chance of getting bad health effects such as brain tumours, cancers etc … However it is important to remember that these studies have only been conducted for a relatively short amount of time and mostly on adults. It has been shown that the radiation from mobile phones penetrates further into the brains of children who have much in the skulls to protect them.
All phone manufacturers now include warnings not to keep your mobile phone next your body … For example in your pocket. They all recommend using hands-free sets rather than holding the phone to your head.
If you do decide to let your child have a mobile phone, encourage them to use it sparingly and educate them about how to hold it, store and use it. Many schools have rules about whether you can have your phone with you during the day so this may also assist in this area.
What Did I Decide?
After thinking about some of these issues, we decided to get our boys mobile phones that they could keep in their bags and take with them when they go out. We bought them brand-new phones for under $30 which are the old button type that we all had 10 years ago. Since we only wanted them for emergencies really, we told them to charge their phones and then leave them off in their bag … The battery lasts for weeks like this and it’s ready if they ever need it.
We put them on a pay-as-you-go plan which costs us absolutely nothing if they don’t use it, and calls and texts are quite cheap when they do. This is working really well, giving them an emergency contact, keeping them off-line apart from when they’re at home and has almost cost us nothing at all.
Our boys are pretty young and I’m sure that as they get older will have to move to another stage of considering these issues but for now this has been a great first step gives off some of the convenience and peace of mind without most of the risks.
Have fun making up your mind and all the best!
