It's 10 o'clock. Do you know where your children are?

My kids are wayyyy too young to even consider having cell phones, but I think when they get older - the age where they go out with friends without parential supervision that I will get them cell phones.

More so if they need me, they can reach me - in any emergency situation. Many times kids are places - like the mall - where you cannot easily call them.

I think more kids have cell phones simply because of the current technology not necessarily because people are fearful. Similar to that more kids have ipods now. They didn't 10 years ago because they weren't around or were too expensive.

And why does this have to be any different. Parents should still have the phone numbers of their children's friends and where they 'hang out' If the parent suspects that the child is lying to them....call the place where they say they are!

I think kids should have cell phones for the same reason that I want my wife to have one. They have access to help if needed no matter where they are.

From what I see, most kids with cell phones have them stuck to their ear at all times. On the sidewalk, in the mall, wherever. It may be a status thing with them, or they just like to talk a lot. I doubt that most parents would be able to get through on the line anyhow.

My oldest has a camera phone built into a Glock 29. The before and after pictures are amazing.

Mo too is way too young to consider a cel phone but I can picture the day when I hear "but everybody's got one....".

I had one a while back and I hated being so accessable. I had it disconnected and lived by my wits for several years. Mr. B brought one home for me a few weeks ago. I charged it, programed it, turned it off and put it in my purse. I haven't looked at it since. I don't even know the phone number.

I think it's kind of funny that kids want these phones and that they are some kind of status signifier. When I was a teen I would have been crazy if my parent's had been able to track me down THAT easily.

Has the notion of "immediacy" changed so much since the advent of cel phones that information now has to be conveyed to your kid when they are hanging out at the mall?

I don't really have anything against cel phones other than the fact that they seem so intrusive.

K requested, and recieved, a cell phone last year as her 8th grade graduation gift. It was a 'pay as you go' or pre-paid model, but we quickly discovered her cell phone habits were way out of line for the pre-paid version. We ended up giving that phone to then 12 year old M with the idea that she would use it only when she needed to be picked up from the movies, mall, etc. She also carries it to school to use if she is going to a friend's house after school because they can't use the school phones to call home.

We put K on our plan for an extra $10.00/month which is MUCH cheaper than what she was spending before. M's calls are each more expensive but she doesn't use it very often, so the pre-paid plan works well for her. We might have to make a change for her as she gets older, but at least we'll have gotten some use out of the phone by then.

The thing that gets me is that each provider has it's own line of phones and the one we bought last year for K isn't useable with any of the other providers. If M's usage increases we'll have to get her a different phone if we move her to our family plan.



I know they could be somewhere other than where I think they are, but we live out of town so they have to be driven everywhere. The primary reason they have a phone is so that they can call me when they need a ride home.



Possibly, but I think it's more to do with status quo. My kids asked me for cell phones, I didn't get them for them until then.

bm

I am amazed that more than 50% of my kids in class (3 graders) are having a cellphone.
They have to call home when they have arrived in school- we don't have schoolbusses here, they either walk or use public transportation.
It is amazing why parents now want this call, 4 years ago, no child had a phone.
The children like the phone- the gadget, but not the task calling home. More than once there were tears: I forgot to call - or the batteries were not loaded.
The parents told me that they(the parents) feel saver- you read so much in the news about accidents or "bad" people.

My own children got their phones when they were about 16. To call home in case of an emergency.
I never used the extended umbillical cord to check them, I trusted them.

I used to hate cell phones but once my child entered School,
I realized that I needed to keep it on at all times. I've received
calls from the teachers, or School nurses, or other parents
that are important. Especially on field trips, I have the cell phone close to me, as one never knows.....

As for giving my daughter a cell phone - not now, she's only
9 years old, but in a few years, definitely. Even talking
to her on her lunch brake would be nice. She's in School
from 8 am to 3 pm - I'd love to hear her voice inbetween.

We a cell phone that Younger Son generally uses.
Sometimes he even turns it on.
I'd pay good money for an option that would allow
me to turn that phone on remotely.
I'd pay even better money to add "shock" to the
"tone" and "vibrate" options.

It sounds like cel phones are pretty much a given for kids these days and that parents see them as an asset.

Interesting.

Thank you all for your replies!

I'm amazed too, ul, that so many kids that young have phones and even more amazed that they have to call home to let their parent know they've reached school safely!

"Call me when you get there" was reserved for us when bike riding at night or traveling out of town with friends.

I'm really not one of those people who belive everything was so much better when I was a kid. I'm trying to understand why everything has to be so immediate and why it seems so necessary to check in with family throughout the day.

Maybe I'm trying to figure out how to tread the apron string....

...I'm not really sure what my curiosity is about.

I think the article hit me so hard today because last night Mr. B and I were watching TV and there was an Onstar ad showing a bunch of kids saying things like "Who's going to call 911 when the airbags deploy?" (Yeah, right, little kids spontaneously use "deploy" all the time.)

Aaannnnyyway - when the ad went off Mr. B looks at me and says the company's tag line should be "Onstar. Live in fear."

The cel phone article tied into this with me as they both seem to be in service of a free-floating angst.

George, that remote on switch may not be too far off. The same article mentions that most phones sold in Asia are equiped with GPS systems.

Would those of you who have given your kids cel phones consider a GPS accessory?

I didn't get mine til I was 15... and it was purely a case of got stuck in Reading a couple of times and couldn't call home to say why I was 2 hours late.

Although since we got a new head the rule is largely disregarded, there is a no-phone rule in school for all but 6th-formers. I think unless you're going out of your own town (kids this is) there is little or no need for a mobile until you're in teens at least... probably the same age I was

It's just a waste of money - besides... unproven health risks anyone?

If you mean a GPS that I could use to track his whereabouts, no. It's
tempting, but I'm not that protective. But a GPS that he could use would
be OK. (No one will ever nickname him "Pathfinder.")

Don't ground the teen, confiscate the mobile phone

SEOUL (Reuters) - Parents looking to grab a teenager's attention with a stiff punishment should confiscate their mobile phone.

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A study by a top South Korean advertising firm shows that a mobile is one of a Korean teenager's most prized possessions.

Among 13- to 15-year-olds, 77.5 percent said a mobile phone was a "must-have" item, while for those aged 16 to 18 the figure was 76.7 percent, the Cheil Communications survey showed.

"Cell phones are the key to a teenager's social network," said Andy Joohyun Lee, senior researcher at Cheil Communications' Brand Marketing Institute.

Teenagers in Internet-savvy South Korea said they would feel helpless without a mobile, making it impossible to keep in touch with friends and send them text messages and pictures.

The ad agency surveyed 800 consumers in the Seoul area aged between 13 and 49. Three of every four South Koreans have a mobile phone.

I made my oldest wait until she started high school, much due to pressure from my wife. Looking back, I wish I had bought her one sooner, as many problems could likely have been avoided.

One thing that irks me though is Sprint's inability to turn off Text Messenging. I've told them at least a dozen times I don't want it yet it still works. And the messages alert you and display immediately, so you can't simply ignore them and thus the 10-cent charge each. This is a killer. Some plans/providers are better than others in this respect.

re: GPS.

Our phones have it, but I didn't buy them with that in mind. Last week while at jazz fest in New Orleans I discovered I'd lost my cell phone. I called my number using Mr B's phone but no one answered. I thought at the time that I could call the provider and have them find it by GPS if it didn't turn up. Kids lose cell phones all the time, finding them by GPS would help but the phone has to be on in order for it to work. Luckily, I called the concierge at our hotel and asked him to track down the van driver who drove us over to the park. He found my phone in the back of the van and returned it to the hotel for me, whew!