The time to give your children cell phone and what should be the use of that cell phone

There are a lot of controversy regarding when to give your children a cell phone. The children used to demand cell phones on their birthdays as a gift. Sometimes parents used to give in to their demands. Children are more advanced with cell phones and right maturity is necessary to use it otherwise there are a lot of traps a cell phone can offer.

It is better to give your children a prepaid cell phone to use in case of emergency when they are away from home, going to sports meet or field trips. When the children hit the age of 18 you might consider getting them a better phone may be smartphone so that they can keep touch with their friends.

You should not give cell phone to a child less than 13 unless the child has medical issues that may call for emergency like if the child has food allergies, asthma that require help. I think 15-17 is the right age because until then you know that they are using your cell phone and you can keep track of their calls and texts better.

When your children start to drive you can give them cell phones. The age between 15-17 is a good age to give because the child can have their first paying job and they can pay for their cell phones. These days there are some very cheap cell phone options available so if a child is that desperate for a cell phone they should be able to afford the cell phone themselves.

There are circumstances when children should be allowed a cell phone. For example, when they are involved in extracurricular activities and will stay late at school. Cell phone is too much a distraction for many school children and many are doing terrible in school because they spend class time with cell phone, texting each other instead of listening to the class.

There is an unquestionable safety aspect of having a cell phone because you know where your children are at all the times and be able to get hold of them whenever necessary. Conversely you would also want them to have an ability to reach you anywhere in case of an emergency.

If your children pay for their own cell phone, it makes them much more responsible for the cell phone, they rarely lose the cell phone and are always more careful as cell phones will be harder for them to replace. When the children is mature enough and they start going out to malls or movies with their friends you can give them a cell phone.

The parents need to teach their children the difference between the need of the cell phone and wanting or demanding the cell phone. Cell phones can be traced as the last point of contact and this could make a difference between a life and death situation.

I do not mind children having cell phones as long as they do not abuse the privilege of having the cell phones. No elementary school children should have cell phone, the middle school maybe okay for a cell phone but only before and after school hours and high school is semi acceptable as it may be the time to have cell phone.

As active as children are these days, a limited use of cell phone with GPS ( Global Positioning System ) and parental permission is a good idea. You should monitor the net usage and limit the data usage. They could earn various features of the cell phone and the parents could have a cell phone log to see who they communicate with.

Cell phones could be operational only during non school hours and cut off during bed time. Some school have strict rules stating that the cell phones must remain in the locker during school hours. The main reasons are cell phone is a distraction and the children use texting to cheat in the exams.

Cell phones are wondrous inventions and like all the invention can be used for both good or bad, it is up to the user. When the user is your children, parents have to be extra careful about the usage of the cell phone.

There are a lot of cell phone plans that offer children's plan which only allow children to call numbers programmed by their parents or 911 in emergency. Each family should evaluate their needs accordingly. Cell phones are an invaluable tool in our technology driven society.

Convenience of the cell phone should not be confused with necessity of the cell phone.. A parent is a person who has authority over their children and as such may decide what is right or wrong for the family.

There is a good joke about giving a cell phone to a 3 year old child. The joke is :
three parents where discussing about what will happen if someone gave a cell phone to a 3 year old.
Parent 1 : I wonder what a 3 year old child would do with a cell phone.
Parent 2 : Leave your phone unattended near a children for a few minutes and trust me you will quickly find out.
Parent 3 : Yeah I accidentally left an open IPad on the bed near my 3 year old daughter and it was open to camera. I found her pictures after some minutes when I was finding pictures to be downloaded from my family album.

Now a days children are very much technology driven. If their spoiled friends have smartphones they also want one. Sometimes the child use their cell phone while driving. It is very dangerous. Parents should teach them not to text while driving.

Some single parents have to give cell phones at an early age because they do not have any other option, If a parent have more than 4 children then he or she have to give cell phone to their children as they have different class times and need to be picked up from school or extra curricular activities at different times. Cell phone usage differs from family to family so the parents are the best people to judge what their children needs.