My eldest son has just turned 11 and we have started to have discussions about whether or not he can have a phone.
He already uses an iPad for schoolwork, gaming and chats with friends in lockdown, so at this stage, we plan to hold out on the phone purchase until he starts high school.
While a few of his friends already have a smart phone, others have smart watches with call functions, while some parents I know believe the best time to buy a child a phone is... never.
I asked the Mamamia parenting community to tell me what they thought about kids and phones.
Here's what they had to say:
1. "I wanted to wait until age 14, but our kids are getting them in time for starting high school. It has been very convenient, but I don't know if that offsets the worry that comes with it: the damage to the phone or to the child mentally and emotionally. We're implementing lots of guidelines around reasonable use/what can be installed." Valerie.
2. "We got our son a phone for Christmas last year, he was 11, now 12. We got it because he was starting secondary school and was going to be on the bus, not just to school but to after school activities." Natalie.
3. "My boys are ages seven and 10 and they have phones, but they have zero interest in using them! They don’t take them to school or anywhere and I tried to encourage them to use them as cameras, but they're still not interested." Kristi-Jane.
Watch: Celebrities discuss parenting and it all sounds very familiar. Post continues below.
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