OT: Cell Phone for Teen Son - Opinions

[Kevin Palmer]

Mine, two girls, started at 10. I gave them a used phone and added the phone to my service for 10.00. I had 1500 minutes on the family share plan so I did not even add minutes. As it was a used phone of mine it did not ave enough value that I was concerned if it was lost or destroyed.



My oldest is now 14 and has had a new phone since she was 12. She has been fantastic with it, thus, i have had no restrictions on her.



So,, I suggest a use phone as it is free and has no concern to it being lost or destroyed.

 

[Johnny O]

I have two teenagers, my ex-wife got them Go-Phones. You can buy minutes cards at Wal-Mart, K-Mart, the grocery store, wherever. I recently found out that my son rarely carries his because he's ashamed for any of his friends to see it, I guess they have fancier phones. My daughter doesn't care because IT'S A PHONE!



OTOH last year I gave my daughter a spare phone from my office to take to basketball camp, where it was promptly stolen the first day she was there. She also lost her first Go-Phone. See how your kids are, but I won't get my daughter anything expensive or that isn't pre-paid.

 

[kil roy]

i got my son his cell phone when he went in to

7th grade.

i added it to my family plan for $10 per month

extra. shared minutes with ours, free nights

and weekends and free mobil to mobil on sprint.



he has had it for 2 years now and been very

responsible with it, he knows not to text surf the web

or download ringtones which can get you in a bind.



i would not do a prepaid plan as my cousin had a go

phone and was not happy, he had many horror stories with them.

 

[WXMotorSports DecalsPartsAccs]

I gave my daughter her cell phone at 11. It only cost 9.99 a month. The phone was free she uses shared minutes off my corporate plan. This way I can write off the bill.



It's a good thing to do. Concerned about theft, getting lost, breaking it? I lose more phones with my business that it wasn't an issue. The dog ate her phone about a year ago and It replaced with the extra free phone I had.



Decision to get her a phone? I think I wasted 15 mins thinking about it.

 

[kil roy]

one thing i didnt think about is the GPS capability

god forbid something should happen 911 can zero

in pretty close with this feature turned on.

 

[Tommy Wright]

After reading through all the posts I must be nuts. I got my 2 youngest kids phones at 7 and 9 respectively. They were not actually cell phones so to speak but the Firefly phone from Cingular. My wife and I controlled the numbers in the phone and they could only make calls to people in their address book. It was $20 a month for the two phones to be added to our plan but they can not text or internet. All the calls to my wife and I were free and they thought they were the coolest things ever. They have had them for almost two years now and neither have lost them or used a lot of minutes. My oldest got her first phone at 14 (she's 18 now) and I have the internet and texting blocked from her phone. All you have to do is call your service provider and tell them you do not want that number to be able to text or hit the internet and they can block it. That guarantees you will never be charged for those items.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Tommy W, I won't say you are nuts, but I will say that I would never pay $240 a year so that a 7 and a 9 year old can have cell phones (Firefly or not).



IMHO, a cellphone shouldn't be considered a toy, an entertainment device, or something to use when you are simply bored. I feel pretty strongly about that. It's a communications device to be used in case of an emergency, and as a convenience for those that regularly have to make important calls. I think if more people felt that way about cell phones and used them as such we would actually be better off (less accidents, more time spent talking to loved ones while in the car, less rude public behavior, etc). However, I recognize I am coming off as really preachy and probably like an old fart.



I don't see how making cell phones available to a 7 and 9 year old can NOT be viewed as anything more (by them) than giving them a toy, or something to play with when they are bored. Our youngest is almost 7, she has placed maybe 3 calls in her life, and received as many, and each time with aid of a parent on one end or the other...all to talk to a friend to set up a play date or somesuch. It's actually something we don't encourage that much...our 6 year old on the phone.



To me, that $240/year is better spent towards a college fund, where it grows over the next 10+ years into thousands, and thousands of dollars.



TJR

 

[WXMotorSports DecalsPartsAccs]

TJR - how much money do you spend a month on eating out? Is it more than 240.00 a year?

 

[Mark Grumpy]

Don't want to speak for Tom but I'm not sure how that's relevant. I go out to eat for MY enjoyment, family time and to have "a break", so to speak from the chores of cooking and cleaning.

But then I'm not one of those that feels my kid should have something just because or that her self esteem will be hurt because her buddy has one and she doesn't. Get over it. A cell phone is not going to make a kid safer, smarter or more independent. If anything, it's making them more dependent because now they don't even have to plan or think.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

SST, I am sure my family spends more than $240/year eating out.



But, we all have to eat, right?



Yeah, I know, you can prepare foods more cheaply than eating out, so dining out is part convenience, part special occassion and maybe part pampering oneself.



I'm all for luxury items, and I am all for pampering and giving oneself and one's kids nice things.



I just don't like what our society has done with the cellphone. By that I mean it has been turned into a must have status symbol...another keep up with the Jones' toy.



I certainly don't want to be what I consider "part of the problem" by turning it into a luxury item, a status symbol, and a toy (no offense to anyone, I hope).



TJR

 

[Tommy Wright]

I got these for my kids because they have a GPS chip in them that Cingular can track and because my kids play outside in our neighborhood alot. Yeah it's $240 a year to someone who just looks at the money side of it. I could care less about the money because the average person blows more on junk than that in a year anyway. My kids know the value of a dollar and are very responsible kids. Like I said earlier all they use it for is to call us or for us to call them. We live on a military base so it's a rather safe environment to play outside. The majority of kids today sit around and play video games and watch TV. My are outside from sun up to sun down and my wife and I like the piece of mind that we can check on them when we want. Plus think of the added convenience of them not having to constantly borrow a phone to call us when they are with friends or out playing.

 

[WXMotorSports DecalsPartsAccs]

Grumpy you missed the point, completely.

 

[Mark Grumpy]

SST,

apparently - what was it?

Plus think of the added convenience of them not having to constantly borrow a phone to call us when they are with friends or out playing.

This is the part I don't get. It was mentioned earlier also. If the kid is out, and out so far they need a ride, how did they get there? Is it lack of planning? We've made them more dependent. We are now at their beck and call. It should be the other way around. The kid needs to plan a little, or walk.

 

[Gary Roberts 2]

I've got a son that's about to turn 13 that's bugging me for a phone. The funny thing is that he never calls anyone on the landline at home! I don't even think he likes talking on the phone. More than anything, I think he just wants to play the games on it.



He is an excellent student, a very active Boy Scout, and plays tuba in the band, and there are a lot times it would be nice if he could call us just before an event or practice is over so that we could pick him up, instead of waiting around.



Based on that, I've been looking closely at Kajeet. It seems reasonably priced, and has a lot of parent control. Plus, the phones are cool. I saw them advertised in a parenting magazine. Anyone have any experience with them?

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Grumpy said:

This is the part I don't get. It was mentioned earlier also. If the kid is out, and out so far they need a ride, how did they get there? Is it lack of planning? We've made them more dependent. We are now at their beck and call. It should be the other way around. The kid needs to plan a little, or walk.

No, it's not lack of planning. Things change. Practices get cancelled, or run late, or end early. Sometimes Mom or Dad are running late due to the unavoidable.



As for walking, that's just not possible from my son's highschool to our house. It's both a distance and a safety issue. If you saw the roads around our community, you would understand. Many two lane roads, with high volume of traffic, lots of blind spots, and hills, and no real "side of the road" or sidewalks to walk on...just the road surface, the white line, a ledge (sometimes no more than 6" wide) then the ditch.



TJR

 

[Thomas Rogers]

TommyW said:

I got these for my kids because they have a GPS chip in them that Cingular can track and because my kids play outside in our neighborhood alot. Yeah it's $240 a year to someone who just looks at the money side of it.... My are outside from sun up to sun down and my wife and I like the piece of mind that we can check on them when we want.

I'm glad you can do that, TommyW. Few parents these days would let their 7 and 9 year olds out of the house in the morning with their GPS cellphones, and not worry about them until sundown.



I had this conversation just this weekend with family and friends. When I was a kid, from the age of 10 or 11, that was my life....out the door in the morning, no indication of where I was going, and as long as I was home by supper all was good. No cellphones or GPS then. And, the funny thing is, the incident rates of child abductions then were much, much higher than they are now.



So, TommyW, I applaud you if you let your young kids have free range...but kids are safer today than they were 20 or 30 years ago, regardless.



TJR

 

[Gypsy me]

TJR,

I hope did get your son the cell, ~it will come in handy especially if you need to get a hold of him due his or your plans changing as you said. Nothing wrong with teen having a cell ~especially when they are responsible teens. You can always explain how to be careful giving out his cell # on the net etc.



Find out what cell his friends use and go from there. Adding an extra line to your plan usually will be the cheaper way to go. And calls to other cells with same company are usually unlimited. I agree that he should pay for his own line, and he can pay you. Just let him know when you need the $. I'm sure he will be happy to pay his share. If he decides to get his own plan on his own you can always have the line temporarily/perm on vacation status till the contract runs out or ask him to honor the commitment to the contract of the line on your plan. Sounds like you have a very responsible young man.



Everyone have a GREAT day! off to work I go last week for this job.