Suitable mobile for child

Catphish

Hi, I'm looking into getting a phone for my son and was hoping to get some advice here

My son is at an age now where a lot of his pals have mobile phones of their own (nearly 12), and he's long over due one at this stage. However, I would prefer if the phone had no internet on it, yet still - I suppose something modern / stylish looking. His pals would take the mick if they saw him with a firefly, so don't go there :pac:

Hopefully someone here / parents will have crossed this bridge and can advise me. It's not right children of his age having free reign of the internet, and I'd rather let him use my own laptop supervised if he needs it for school work etc., for now. A little help would be greatly appreciated

smcgiff

I think you can get the internet deactivated on most phones if you prefer.

Leroy42

If you don't want him to have access don't buy him something that allows him access. What his friends say is irrelevant.

He doesn't need a phone, although you may deem it wise that he has one in case of emergency/knowing where he is. In that case a simple phone with a small prepaid credit (or in some cases they can send a txt to some numbers without credit asking for call back) will do.

If you are so worried about what his friends will think, why don't you ask them what phone to get.

Edit - I'm not trying to be pious (although rereading my post it comes across as that) but if you are worried about the dangers and not comfortable with it then don't get him one. Getting him something simply to keep him up with the jones's is not the right action either.

smcgiff

I don't agree with the above, however, another thing to be aware of is how valuable mobile phones are. They are at risk of theft, so you need to educate your child to the dangers of using in a public place.

Another worrying feature is the camera facility. That can cause problems too.

Catphish

smcgiff wrote: »

I don't agree with the above, however, another thing to be aware of is how valuable mobile phones are. They are at risk of theft, so you need to educate your child to the dangers of using in a public place.

I will do, thanks. I've no intention of buying him anything expensive anyway.

Regarding getting in touch with the network about the phones capabilities, that is a good idea

Another worrying feature is the camera facility. That can cause problems too.

This I hadn't considered, and I assume you mean that it is against school rules? I know that the children are only allowed use phones after school. The school is particularly strict about mobile usage during school hours, and on sight of one it would be confiscated. There also has to be written consent to the school saying that the parents permit their children to bringing a phone into school. Without a letter of consent the phone would be confiscated and the parents would be contacted.

Leroy - I know I mentioned his friends, but that wouldn't be the reason I'm looking to buy him a phone. If communicating between his friends was the only thing on my mind I would have bought him one long ago. But it's not the case here, I would like to be able to get in touch with him when I need to, as would his father.

Prior to this, I had given him temporary usage of a really dated phone, though very seldom. The charger for it is lost now, but it was also a very awkward phone to use. There was no internet on this phone as it was so old, what was on my mind was to get him something along the same lines just more modern in style and a bit easier to use.

I appreciate the replies, and will probably go with the idea of contacting the network.

Lardy

I know you said you didn't want anything too expensive, but most modern Blackberry's have full parental controls. See screen shot below of my Blackberry Z10:

ED E

Even if you disable data on his SIM via the provider he'll still have wifi access in a load of locations which is totally unmonitored. Kids shouldnt be given smartphones IMO, get him a blockia. May not be cool but thats the price you pay for keeping him from looking up goatse and blue waffle in the back of class.

Catphish

ED E wrote: »

Even if you disable data on his SIM via the provider he'll still have wifi access in a load of locations which is totally unmonitored. Kids shouldnt be given smartphones IMO, get him a blockia. May not be cool but thats the price you pay for keeping him from looking up goatse and blue waffle in the back of class.

The wifi I hadn't thought of either.


I'm beginning to think Im wasting my time. Parents are expected to monitor their children's Internet access, yet even if I do get my son a phone without these capabities it doesn't mean he won't see something he's not ready for from another child's phone.

I've always been wary of this, hence the reluctance to give him a phone of his own before now. What shook me up was a post on another website by a parent with a child of a similar age to my son, who had said another boy in his year was showing others pornographic vids and pics. Quite a few other mothers had heard of this going on, and its worried me a bit. Schools assure you that there are strict measures in place in terms of mobile usage during school hours, but I wonder.

I'm definitely not prudish, but times have changed. I'm in my mid thirties, yet at his age I'd not long found out about Santa, never mind 'the talk' we were given in school.

It feels like an up hill paddle trying to do the right thing here. As previously suggested, maybe a Nokia is the way to go here, for all the good it will do

Czarcasm

OP my son is eight years of age now and he's had phones since he was 6, I got him a Samsung Europa for his 6th birthday for €50, then last year for his 7th a second hand Samsung galaxy mini for €30, he got a tablet for his 8th birthday and for his 9th in October we're looking at a Nokia Lumia 510 Windows 8 phone for €110 on the Meteor network (get it in Carphone warehouse and you get an XBOX Live gold subscription with it worth €50 for free).

He has to pay for his own credit of €5 per month out of his allowance and that gets him the free texts to myself or my wife, plus a few calls when he's not within range of a wifi network for skype or viber.

My own personal feeling on the whole "but they'll have access to porn if I don't lock that shìt down!", they'll have it anyway, everywhere, and the more you try to lock it down, the more you challenge them to break it, not for the porn, but just to show they can break it! Hence why I never felt a need to install any parental software on my son's phone, tablet, laptop - there's no curiosity about the mystery if you don't create one for him.

Now in saying that, I'm an IT consultant by profession and I'm also on the Board of Management in my son's school, so I get to hear all the time about 9, 10 and 11 year old's using proxies and other methods to bypass filters on the school computers to access facebook, etc.

Their phones aren't allowed in class or during school hours except for a few students that have exceptional medical needs such as diabetic children who need to contact their parents to know how much insulin they need at lunch times.

Your child is presumably going into first year in the coming term, and if you're sensible with him about his phone use, he'll be sensible about his own phone use. I wouldn't get too bogged down in locking the phone down. I'd be more concerned with him showing you how to use it properly!

jill_valentine

This article might be helpful - http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/jun/06/mobile-phones-children-buyers-guide

In the UK at least, there seems to be a facility where you can contact the operator and ask them to restrict what their internet will give them access to. If that's possible here, it might be a compromise if all else fails?

ED E

jill_valentine wrote: »

This article might be helpful - http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/jun/06/mobile-phones-children-buyers-guide

In the UK at least, there seems to be a facility where you can contact the operator and ask them to restrict what their internet will give them access to. If that's possible here, it might be a compromise if all else fails?

Vodafone and three here operate filters on PAYG accounts, but its very rudimentary.

Czarcasm wrote: »

OP my son is eight years of age now and he's had phones since he was 6, I got him a Samsung Europa for his 6th birthday for €50, then last year for his 7th a second hand Samsung galaxy mini for €30, he got a tablet for his 8th birthday and for his 9th in October we're looking at a Nokia Lumia 510 Windows 8 phone for €110 on the Meteor network (get it in Carphone warehouse and you get an XBOX Live gold subscription with it worth €50 for free).

He has to pay for his own credit of €5 per month out of his allowance and that gets him the free texts to myself or my wife, plus a few calls when he's not within range of a wifi network for skype or viber.

My own personal feeling on the whole "but they'll have access to porn if I don't lock that shìt down!", they'll have it anyway, everywhere, and the more you try to lock it down, the more you challenge them to break it, not for the porn, but just to show they can break it! Hence why I never felt a need to install any parental software on my son's phone, tablet, laptop - there's no curiosity about the mystery if you don't create one for him.

Now in saying that, I'm an IT consultant by profession and I'm also on the Board of Management in my son's school, so I get to hear all the time about 9, 10 and 11 year old's using proxies and other methods to bypass filters on the school computers to access facebook, etc.

Their phones aren't allowed in class or during school hours except for a few students that have exceptional medical needs such as diabetic children who need to contact their parents to know how much insulin they need at lunch times.

Your child is presumably going into first year in the coming term, and if you're sensible with him about his phone use, he'll be sensible about his own phone use. I wouldn't get too bogged down in locking the phone down. I'd be more concerned with him showing you how to use it properly!

Very good points. The fact is kids will see content the shouldnt soon or later, be it via their phone or elsewhere. Sure all they have to do is join tumblr to get all the porn they like. Maybe introducing them to all the benefits of the web is a better strategy than trying to restrict them. Not a parent so its not a dilema I have to face yet.