At What Age Should You Get Your Child a Cell Phone?

With the lowering cost of cellular phones, as well as the different plans that assorted carriers have to offer, many families decide to buy their children cell phones.

Kids as young as eight years old are begging to own their own cellular phone. What age they should get their child a cell phone is probably a big question parents ask themselves.

Kids live in a technological world and are very bright about how computers, fax machines and cellular phones work. Does it mean you need to get your child a cellular phone at age eight? Kids at age eight need to socialize with kids of their own age playing at the park, riding their bikes, or playing various outside or inside games. Having a cellular phone is very good to have in case of an emergency, like if you are running late to pick up your child from school or practice, or if your child is not ready to be picked up yet, they can call and can let you know about it. Age eight is probably the age when a child is capable of using a cellular phone to call you to be picked up, or for you to call them to know that you can’t pick them up on time. However, an eight year old is not likely to be anywhere other than school, a friend’s house or with family, and all of these places have phones the child can use, or that you can call them on. Thus, giving a cellular phone to a young child such as an eight year old, can lead to a lost or damaged cellular phone and to angry and frustrated parents. What age should you get your child a cell phone?

When your child enters middle school, your child becomes more independent and wants to go to a friend’s house after school, or bring a friend home, or is involved in various after school activities. When a regular land line phone is not accessible the cellular phone can be a great asset to reach you.

By the time your child enters high school and starts driving, a cellular phone becomes a necessity for safety reasons. You want to be able to contact your teen at work, at friends’ houses or wherever he/she may be so you can have a clear conscience that he/she is ok. When it comes to driving places, your teen doesn’t always drive the best looking car or even the best running car, so therefore, you can expect to get a phone call anytime of day for help because the car is out of gas or something else is wrong with it. The cellular phone seems to make more sense for the teenage kids, because of the busy life they live. They seem to like to go places, do fun things with friends, be involved with babysitting siblings and free you for driving them around.

Many factors of life give middle school to high school age kids good reason to own their own cell. Your child shows more responsibility at high school age because he/she has a job, girl or boy friend, driving and other fun activities. They show they can be trusted, therefore they can be trusted better with a cell phone as far as asking them to pay some of the bills charging the phone, using it as needed.

At what age should you get your child a cell phone? It all depends on you. You decide to get your child a cell phone according to your family’s situation and demands. You decide why your child needs to have a cell phone at age eight or why you think he/she needs to wait until later. A cell phone needs to be used more as an emergency tool rather than a tool to talk and visit with friends. A young child doesn’t need to spend time on the phone all day, but needs to have more time to remain a child doing child things, and also should not have to worry about where his/her cell is and what is going to happen to him/her if the cell is lost.

A high school kid can share the responsibility of paying the bill, purchasing a new one if his/hers is lost, and is able to share some of the adult responsibilities. Owning a cell at a high school age helps both parent and child free their time from each other as far as driving the child places and pick him/her up after.

Of course, owning a cell comes with rules that you need to make your child follow. A high school age kid will have more rules than an eight year old kid.

Parents, set rules of using the cell phone and get one for your children only if you think it is really necessary.