So my son asks for a cell phone...

I'm another in the "it's always off, only to be used for emergencies" type. And I bring it along when I'm traveling, too, but again, I always still keep it off.

 

For my wife and I mobile phones gave us freedom. My wife is a nurse and was on call, we knew if no call by 2PM we could go out but we were trapped in the house until 2PM every weekend that she didn't get a call earlier. She wasn't paid to wait by the phone. We went for a pager and came home with a phone. Our first mobile wasn't a brick in a bag but it was Motorola's first flip phone with 24 hours standby using a big battery!!! 8 hours on the standard battery!
I've since had 2 more Motorola phones, never again! To protect a child from the hazards of mobile phones give them a Motorola, bloody thing wont work anyway.

 

i teach in a large school system - middle and high school. fairly prosperous district, e.g., most of the kids families have money.

fwiw, by middle school (6th grade, age 11), a fair percentage of the kids have phones. mostly girls, the boys are still clumsy at that age.
by 8th grade, age 13, a majority of my students have cell phones.
they're supposed to keep them turned off during class, and most of them comply.

by high school, age 14, its a rare student who does NOT have a phone. and an ipod, and a computer, and, and, and... we're doing a fine job of raising the next generation of consumers...

the concern in the schools is the cheating element - texting test answers back and forth, sending cell phone photos of exam papers, etc

 

We got our 8 year old son a cell phone. Our reasons were security and be able to call him anytime. We travel also travel quite a bit and in case we get separated we can communicate instantly.

We got him a Firefly which only allows calls from his family and allows 911 calls.

Oh and the claim that cell phones are hazardous to your health are just hogwash. There is no peer reviewed study that has demonstrated any linkage between cell phones and health hazards.

 

At first I didn't use my phone much but now I'm giving the number out to more people so it rings more often. Still not that much, though. But it's more convenient to get the call on the cell wherever I am than to find a message when I get home from work, but by then it's after business hours so I have to call back tomorrow, and invariably the person isn't in so I leave a message, and then I'm not at my desk when they call back, and so on and so on. I do not use it while I'm driving - if necessary I'll pull over to talk.

Re: emergencies, I have the phone on all the time because if I need to call 911 I do not want to have to wait while the stupid thing powers on.

 

My experience is you can give your kid a cell phone but you can't make him remember to take it with him, charge it, turn it on, or not have it buried in his backpack so deep he can't hear it ring if he remembered to take it with him, charge it, and turn it on. Remember this when you call him about pick up plans and you hear the phone ringing in his bedroom.

 

This is my take on cell phones.

www.chamaree.com » Thanks for calling…

 

I agree 100%!!!

I do have one exception to the always-off rule: Perhaps once a year there's a situation where I want someone to be able to reach me, or someone has a legitimate reason for wanting to be able to reach me while I'm away from home. If I'm going to be picking someone up at the airport, or I have a lunch date with someone who is chronically unpunctual or who has legitimate circumstances that could require last-minute cancellation. (I had one such friend in Fargo: a good enough friend I was willing to suspend the usual expectations.) In such a case I leave the phone on, and explain that it will only be on for that day, and that if I'm driving I will not answer, but will pull over and call back when it's safe to do so.

 

First, to the original topic, cell phones for kids. IMO, each case differs - a parent shouldn't give a kid a cell phone just cause the brat wants it. Rather, the cell phone should be given when the kid gets to a point where it makes sense - in other words, they should get it when they're spending more time away from home. you might have one 9 year old that takes the bus to and from school and is always either at your place or his friends two houses down... that kid doesn't need a cell phone. But you could have another 9 year old that walks a mile to and from school and is involved in numerous after school activities. That kid would be a good candidate for a phone. Of course, it's all up to the parent...


now, to the topic of our phones I got my first one sophomore year in college. throughout high school my mom would give me hers whenever i went out with my friends, especially when i or they were driving. it served as a great safety net if i need to be picked up, or was running late past my bedtime, or whatever. And frankly, i saw my friends every day during the week, talked to them on the phone at home, and online... and if i wasn't home i was either out with my family where the distraction wouldn't be appreciated or out with them where they wouldn't be calling. but then again, back then a cell phone wasn't the teenage status symbol it is today.

how i feel about my cell phone... frankly, i love it. The freedom of being able to call anyone whenever and wherever i want is great. Sure, people call when i don't want to talk to them or whatever, and they know i won't necessarily answer just because the phone rings. But they also know that i'll get their message or see that they called as soon as i'm free, as opposed to wondering if i'm at home or at work or spending the weekend out of town, etc.

 

My 8 year old has been wanting a cell phone for a year. The answer has been a steadfast "No." I'm not paying $500/year to give him something that he will mislay, forget, randomly drop in the house, break, throw, and otherwise abuse and cost me a bunch of money.

I have considered Pat's idea of a cell phone with calling card, except for all the above mentioned reasons (reduce $500/year to $50 + phone).

My phone is off, almost all the time. Emergency use was the primary reason for buying it (although, with my T-Mobile plan, I don't think I can use my phone. Couldn't bring up voice mail, despite showing 4 bars on BART the other day.....grrrr....how well will it work when my car breaks down?) Makes me really not want to have a cell phone (I just mostly don't want to have one) despite the occasionaly convenience of calling my wife and asking her what it was she wanted me to pick up at the grocery store (except my phone doesn't get signal there.....sigh).

 

When I was nine, I wanted a CB. Did not get it.

I did not have a cell phone until I was, I think, 28? Not sure. And I still only use mine today, when I need to, not just to yak or whatever. I don't like when people are married to their phones. I turn mine off when I rest, just like I take the phone off the hook when I rest. If it's important, they can leave a message.

Oh, and my outgoing message on my home phone? It says this: "Thanks for calling The Studio. Our office is currently closed; please leave a message."

This turns away 99% of all junk calls.

 

the cancer is real to an extent, not so sure anymore. An uncle of mine had a tumour back in 96 in his brain, it was in the shape of a motorola phone..not kidding here. He is doing fine now after treatment. New devices have gotten much better in regard's to radiation, but there still are trace amounts which can be measured with a simple device..avaiable here.

Microchek Microwave Oven Leak Detector || Microwave Oven Testing || MICRO-CHECK - Mfg# I-301

it looks cheap but does work, it went to 7m from my 3 year old flip phone, nothing to worry about--unless your clued to your phone.

 

Actually, I think that generally, the radiation has increased on cell phones. Maybe it has something to do with the switch from analog to digital networks.

I don't know if radiation from cell phones is a problem. I suspect it is, notwithstanding the absence of conclusive peer reviewed tests. For my daughter, I always tried to get her cell phones with the least amount of radiation.