I would like the opinion of

Well, my parents would not get me a cell phone until I was in college. Until then, they would only lend me one of theirs for emergencies only, or if I was going to be somewhere where they would not be able to reach me otherwise. The reason for that was because I wasn't driving yet, so it wasn't like I needed communication in my car for any reason, and I always hated talking on the phone even to socialize (for reasons even I don't fully understand. I just always found the phone boring). So understandably, my parents figured there was no point, I would rarely use it, if ever, and therefore they would never get their money's worth. While I understood and agreed with this as a teen (cell phones had not quite become the norm when I was a tween), I did not always like it because I felt like the only one who didn't have one. And it seemed as though if your parents didn't buy you the latest in technology, people would look down on you and think you were poor or something... or it was used in some way to measure your supposed worth as a person, which leads me to believe it has something to do with "competing" or "keeping up" with their peers. If the teen has a job of their own and is paying for it themselves, that is one thing, but I never understood the parents that buy their kids laptops and cell phones and all this other stuff if they do not need it or have done nothing to earn it. Kids just seem to be getting more and more spoiled these days. As for MySpace pages, I developed my first personal website when I was about fifteen or sixteen. I would have started earlier but was having trouble finding the time to do it in the way that I wanted to. My parents never had any problem with me having a website, and they weren't overprotective when it came to posting pictures of myself. This was, of course, before the days of MySpace, and I eventually became a part of the "teen domain scene" which was basically this "elite" group of domains owned by teenagers. With me, it was just exploring developing a passion, not exploiting myself and my personal life in provocative ways. MySpace is a networking platform and is therefore a little bit different in many ways than maintain a website. I use it primarily to promote my work, but most use it for social purposes. I am not a parent, so it is hard for me to give a good age limit. However, they need to understand and use the right precautions, know how to go about this in a mature, civilized manner (even when I had my websites at a relatively young age, my parents would not allow certain content such as vulgar or offensive content, pictures of myself in revealing clothing, use of the "f" word, and stuff like that). Just my reflections on these subjects. Of course times have changed very rapidly from the time I first gained experience in these areas.

Ok first I think 14 is way to young for a myspace page. I think if this girl has one the parents and any responsible adult should be monitoring it. I do support kids having cell phones in this day and age. Real emergencies are happening every day to children. Things that weren't happening when we were in school. An $800 bill is outrageous. I recommend a Firefly.It limits access to children . It has 3 features. One button for mom one for dad(or adult of parents choice) and one for the police. Period no large bills. Until a parent is certain about how a phone will be handled by these kids this is the phone they need. Hope the 14 year old will be paying back that money. Either by choring it off allowance, whatever.

It's hard to put an 'age' on these things since one 14 year old might be way more responsible than another 17 year old. In general, I think they feel they need 24/7 access to these things because they are in that 'lovely' ego-centered phase of life and truly believe that the world revolves around them. The myspace thing...Mine will be allowed before they are 16 BUT I must be on their friends list to monitor them and I must be given the password so I can monitor things if I have suspicions about anything.

I got my 1st phone when I was 16 (i'm turning 22 this yr) right before I got to college. My dad gave it to me coz I was going to study in the city and I'll be staying in a dorm. It was a prepaid line and my dad gives me P500 (thats around 13 dollars) load allowance per month. So if I'll need more than that, I have to take it from my own allowance. I think thats good coz it taught me to budget my money. My younger brother got his last month and he's just 13. Its for emergency purposes. And its also prepaid. A similar rule applies to him, he's given only P300 load allowance a month coz he goes home everyday and he really doesnt have to make phone calls. Regarding MySpace account (and the likes), I really dont know. My brother has a friendster account but he doesnt post photos, bulletins,etc. So I really dont know...