To Cell Phone or Not To Cell Phone
That is the question. I had to order my mom a new phone which arrived yesterday. In the process of opening the package, M’khai (7) says “ooh is that for me?” Really dude? You JUST started reading and now you think you are worthy of a cell phone. So I said, not until you’re 13, he was like “yayy I can get one when I’m 10!” Sidebar: M’khai is a problem and one day we will go into what I say and what he does but this isn’t the post for it.
The hubster doesn’t seem to think that the 15 year old should even have a phone but I disagree. I think society makes a cell phone absolutely necessary. A few years ago, a student killed himself in our high school’s lobby, if something goes down at school, I can’t wait for administration to let me know my kid is fine, I need to have a direct connect. Now, what he doesn’t need is the damn iPhone. Herein lies the problem. He has an iPhone (that he lost privileges to all summer) but the school year is a fresh start for us so he will get a phone back, just not sure if it’s that particular phone. With the iPhone there are apps so he had access to Facebook, which he was using as a nightly sexting tool. He would chat with some chick at 10pm religiously through the FB app. I had to put a stop to it so along with disabling the FB account, I took the phone away.
AT&T has a program called smart limits, which I utilize. I love that I can restrict texts and calls during the school day and the night. A good thing about the restriction is that only certain numbers, i.e, mine are always allowed in. But what does slick ass do? These fricking teenagers, I swear! It’s my fault, because I didn’t put myself in his shoes to explore all the things he could do with his peers. The app store has a ton of free apps that allow you to text, despite the smart limits being enabled. So he never needed the actual text that comes with the phone, he had his own texting app, so all during class it was a text here, and a text there. I got something for that ass though this time. If he keeps the iPhone, I can enable parental controls on it.
so I can disable the access to the App store and certain programs. I’m only still considering the iPhone because he loves music and can use the iPod on it too. I think the parental controls together with Smart Limits, may be exactly what I need to keep his lil self in check. But, stay tuned because I am sure that something new will come up and I will have to update you guys on what the slickster did. SMH
Did I miss something? Will you give your teen a cell phone? Do you have any additional tips to offer? What’s the best age to equip your kid with a phone?
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