Comments on: Kids with smartphones: What’s the right age?

By: Just5

Just5 — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:31:16 +0000

Kids with smartphones: What’s the right age? http://t.co/zYtvJGnY

By: SousaCourtReporters

SousaCourtReporters — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:55:03 +0000

Kids with smartphones: What’s the right age? http://t.co/vPFPdiDD

By: Qustodio

Qustodio — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 21:22:08 +0000

Kids with smartphones: What’s the right age? http://t.co/oCV3EXKB #parents

By: Qualcomm Spain

Qualcomm Spain — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:23:28 +0000

¿Niños con #smartphone? ¿A qué edad? http://t.co/3m9JxS0g

By: uzmaalee

uzmaalee — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 18:42:12 +0000

I think simple gadgets are good for kidssince they are bombarded with complex messages through multiple media. Lets keep life simple.

By: Mike Nicholson

Mike Nicholson — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 10:04:19 +0000

Glenn, My kids are seven and four and both can play games and interact with both my iPhone and iPad very well indeed. In answer to your question, there are a few things that would stop me letting them have their own:

1. Smartphones are addictive! I am always on my one, but the difference is I use mine to read, search & learn new stuff. They use it to play games. There is already a worry that kids are replacing play that involves fresh air and exercise with a TV or PC screen. To my mind, giving them a smartphone would make that situation worse.

2. A magnet for bullies. A young child with a shiny phone at school runs the risk of having it stolen by older, jealous bullies.

3. I am still not convinced that mobile phones are not exposing us to unhealthy radiation, and I think the longer we can keep them away from little brains that are still growing, the better.

4. Why? My kids are never left without an adult, so they don’t need their own phone. They have a Nintendo DS for games, so they really don’t need a mobile phone. My seven year old daughter disagrees of course!

These are very personal reasons for why I don’t want my kids having a phone yet, and I am not judging anybody else with differing views whatsoever.

By: Ted Rathkopf

Ted Rathkopf — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 01:41:56 +0000

My children had my wife’s and my hand-me-down iPhone 3Gs (not 3GSs) for about a year, using them as iPod Touches. So, when we got my daughter a cell phone when she turned 12 and would be going into middle school, it didn’t make any sense to get her a feature phone and have her carry two devices. So, we got her a 3GS.

We have Google Voice set up on the younger daughter’s phone for texting purposes. The only people in her contact list are me, my wife, and the older daughter, and she can text us with GV when she is connected to WiFi. She has the WiFi configured for all her friends’ houses, and she can text us, and we her, when she’s there.

By: ARJWright

ARJWright — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 18:09:27 +0000

It’s not that complcated. Give the, the tech and free(er) use with it when they are able to teach what it is they are using. Besides improving comprehension and analytical abilities, it also improves communication relationships that tool behaviors usually fracture between kids and parents.

Apply this to adults and you’d have a lot less support calls and customer service wouldn’t need to be an industry either ;)

By: Thomas Daly

Thomas Daly — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:45:26 +0000

Many parents these days are complaining that their kids just don’t know how to truly “play” anymore. I’ve seen this countless times and am concerned that we’re rushing our young ones out of a simple, peaceful childhood and into the adult world of competition, consumerism and technology way too soon. I’m a parent at a NYC-area Waldorf School, and we adhere to a strict media policy—a social contract among teachers and fellow parents—under which screen time of all sorts is not allowed or very limited for children under age 7. There are many reasons that my wife and I and parents of Waldorf schools around the globe have sought out a “safe-haven” from the inevitable pressure of modern society, but one of the biggest has to do with learning that it’s ok to be “bored.” Children today just don’t have the same space that previous generations of children had. Space and time to get so bored that if forces them to invent their own games, to entertain themselves. The onslaught of television, computer and now mobile devices and content could keep our children from learning how to get lost in deep play, in a world of imagination—their own imagination—not well defined world of someone else’s imagination manifest in the form of an interactive game, where all the rules have been defined, all paths have been paved, all forms are final, leaving little room for the young mind to form its own images and symbolic meanings on the objects in their world.

Don’t get me wrong, I am no Luddite! I believe there is a time and a place for technology in our lives, just not in the lives of our young ones who are still coming into themselves, and living in their perfect little childhood fantasy land.

Some links:

Childhood Under Threat: Caught between the Culture Industry and the Technocratic Reform of Education
http://www.waldorflibrary.org/Journal_Articles/Childhood_Under_Threat.pdf

Kaiser Family Foundation Report (PDF)
http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/Kids-Media-The-New-Millennium-Executive-Summary.pdf

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/darell-hammond/if-we-dont-let-our-children_b_1017485.html?ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false#sb=1419983

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/technology/at-waldorf-school-in-silicon-valley-technology-can-wait.html?_r=1

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/technology/technology-in-schools-faces-questions-on-value.html?pagewanted=all%3Fsrc%3Dtp&smid

By: Allie Peabody

Allie Peabody — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:03:34 +0000

I have two kids and while I don’t and still don’t consider any cellphone necessary for my 8 year old currently, my older daughter has a SmartPhone and it really only came about out of necessity. She’s 13 and until a situtation came up where I began to work later hours, I never considered even purchasing a phone for her before high school, but things change especially since she started heloing with her grandmother’s care after school. The two of them spend a lot of time together before I get out of work 3 to 4 hours later so getting a cellphone for her and my mom (another I never thought about) became necessary. There were money issues so an IPhone wasn’t even a consideration — I did the best I could on a prepaid level with same company I’m with currently. She has a decent touchscreen Motorolla phone from Tracfone (not too fancy) and I got my mom the “senior” friendly Tracfone verison from SVC that is even more basic. I hope that in time I can upgrade her to something better, but I felt that the phone, about $80 and then her grandmother’s roughly $15, were an investment in the family so to speak.