A Cell Phone At How Old!?

I saw a post on Facebook the other day from a guy whose seven year old daughter has a cell phone. I think for most of us, that seems a little young. And the general consensus in the comments section of the post was exactly that. Lots of different opinions were represented! That brings up the question, how young is too young for a cell phone? I think the answer to that question solely lies on the shoulders of the parents. Parents are the ones that know their kids better than anyone else. But when is a phone really necessary? I always thought that 13 seemed like a reasonable age to give a child their first cell phone. Some parents would argue that if the child is not old enough to work a job and pay for the phone, then they shouldn’t have one. On the other hand, many parents want to be able to track their kids’ location, and a cell phone will certainly help do that. We often think of cell phones as luxury items, not necessities. But at the same time, the measure of safety that they provide surely makes them feel like a necessity for so many people. When I was growing up, there were no cell phones. If we were out and about with friends and we wanted to get picked up by our parents, we would go to the payphone at the mall, drop in a quarter, and call home. Of course, at that time I think we were about 14 years old, just a couple years away from getting our drivers licenses. I would not condone dropping off an eight year-old at the mall to hang with their friends by themselves, but then again I’ve seen parents do that.

We were going to let our daughter get her first phone around age 11. She was always a little bit jealous that her brother got a phone when he turned 11. We wanted to treat the kids as equals, so that was our plan. Unfortunately, our son passed away just before his 12th birthday. Our daughter inherited his phone shortly after he passed, she was 9 years old. We set the ground rules for her having the phone, and being her mom’s daughter of course she followed those rules to a T. Now as a 15-1/2 year old, she basically has free reign to use her phone as she wishes. Unless her homework isn’t done! ✅

What age do you think a kid should have their first phone?