Do you think it's good for children to have a celphone?
By cdparazo
@cdparazo (5765)
Philippines
February 18, 2007 10:19pm CST
I was aghast when my 4-year old daughter asked me to buy her a real celphone. She and her younger sister are so fascintated with celphones that they have their own toy celphones wherein they get to imitate the adults talking. My daughter is in school already and some of her classmates in montessori may have celphones already. Elementary students at her school have celphones already that the school saw the need to regulate the use of celphones and disallow its usage during school hours. Most parents find celphones useful in tracking and monitoring the location and whereabouts of their children especially those celphones that has a child locator. As for me, it could ease my mind that i could always reach my daughter anytime and check on her. In cases of emergency also at school or some calamities such as earthquakes, it is also easier to get hold of the children at school. What do you think? Do you think there should be an age limit for children to have celphones?
1 person likes this
5 responses
@bonita002 (98)
• United States
19 Feb 07
I think children should play with toys phone, not real ones. Parent's need to monitor their children closely or have them stay at home or in the yard. When at school I think the safety of your children are with the teacher and the school authority and they know what to do in case of an earthquakes. When they want a cellphone they should be able to pay the costs and bills. that come with it. 18 years of age would be the best age.
1 person likes this
@cdparazo (5765)
• Philippines
17 Mar 07
It would be very hard for me not to provide my child who is now already in school when she starts primary schooling especially when she wont have a nanny by that time. Cellphones here in my country is very cheap and so are the cost of the calls. The one im using cost $.02 per minute of voice calls & for UNLIMITED
@cdparazo (5765)
• Philippines
17 Mar 07
It would really be very hard for me not to provide my child a cellphone when she starts primary schooling since she wont have a nanny by then. Cellphones here in my country is very cheap and I could even buy one at only $15. The cost of texting here and the voice calls are getting cheaper also. The one I'm using now only costs $.02 per minute of voice calls and I also avail of a $0.42 for UNLIMITED texting.
@michelledarcy (5220)
•
19 Feb 07
I don't think children need cellphones. The only time I want to be able to get in touch with my daughter is if she is out in the street playing with her friends. When she does this I give her a CB radio so I can talk to her regularly to find out where she is.
1 person likes this
@cdparazo (5765)
• Philippines
17 Mar 07
Good for you my friend that it's easier for you to monitor your kids. I am a single parent and I am on travel a lot. When I am in town, I also work very hard and sometimes I am on meeting or doing a lot of things from sun up to sundown that I cant have time to go out and find a telephone to check on my daughter. I call my daughters many times a day through the cellphone, and I feel that it is just a very small cost to pay in terms of ensuring that they are okay and it's also my way of compensating the time that I am not with them. You're children are very lucky that you could be with them to take care of them 24/7.
@truestori07 (217)
• United States
19 Feb 07
No need for an age limit, but parents should really think before buying. It is expensive to buy a phone and a year or two worth of service. Not to mention ring tones, etc. But she's only 4 it's naturally, shes still so young so it's nothing to worry about. But cellphones are things that alot of kids have now adays. So once shes a little older just wait till she reallys wants a cellphone.
1 person likes this
@bkfuels (1601)
• Canada
19 Feb 07
Well I guess my best response to this is we all got along just fine as kids without cell phones. You have some valid points but I am kind of sick of seeing all the teenagers with cell phones I really do not think that they are that necessary. There should be ways of keeping track of them without everyone and their dog having a cell phone. I just got one about 6 months ago I rarely use it.
@nashelsky (124)
• Singapore
19 Feb 07
i do agree that you can feel safer because can contact and check on them regularly. However, probably they are too young for many of the fascinating features on nowadays cell phone. Probably what they need is the basic phone that only allow them to do voice and text messaging. It could prevent theft also. Watch out, bad guys are everywhere trying to steal phones, especially those hi-tech ones, with video cam and so on so forth.
@cdparazo (5765)
• Philippines
17 Mar 07
I agree with you that only basic features should be on the cellphone of the children. I also want that would tell me where my child is at any particular time. We have here that are especially designed for parents.
