When do you give your chid a hp?

[sky minecrafter]

Hi, yes Year 1. (1) Negotiate ground rules before the handover. (2) Educate etiquette (in case misunderstandings occur in peer mobile chats), discuss dos&donts. (3) Start with prepaid limited (monthly 1G?) data plan (wifi only at home...) perhaps - can maintain balance of power through monthly give&takes. (4) Oh & turn off all background apps (no auto download of files...) - they consume a lot of data without doing anything.

[sharonkhoo]

I agree with the previous post. We let our kids have phones in sec school as it seemed unavoidable since so many school notices, groupwork etc were done on the phone. Teachers assume that students will have a phone. We didn’t want our kids to be left out when it came to schoolwork and social life.


Setting rules beforehand is very important. If you think your child is the kind to "forget" what was agreed, write them down and post them somewhere. We told our kids that the phone, even if called "theirs" was still "ours", and if rules were broken too often, we would confiscate the phone and they could go back to "dumb" phones. If it was needed for work, I would be responsible for reading all messages and would transmit the work-related ones, and send the necessary replies. The horror that caused was a good deterrent!

We also started with a prepaid plan without data - our kids had free wifi at home and in school, and we said that 45 mins on the road without data wouldn’t kill them. Our JC2 daughter is still without data, and our older daughter just got data (university first year). They were both fine with no data all those years. Initially, we told them that they should not download any apps without checking with us first, and we said that we had the right to check their phones whenever we liked. I don’t think we ever really checked as both our girls are very open about their phones and will show us stuff etc, so we generally knew what was on the phones. When the were older and we trusted them, we let them have more leeway.

And yes, teaching them basic safety dos and don’ts is important, and also the etiquette. Tell them about cyber-bullying - not be get sucked into vicitimising others, and not to suffer in silence if they are victims.

[tankee]

We gave DS a hand-me-down phone with voice plan only when he started taking public transport on his own from his primary school to his grandparents’ place after school.


During the first week of sec 1, his teacher asked the class to use their phone to perform some activities, that when we started giving him data plan.

[jedamum]

My thoughts are to start access to smart phone usage before sec school. Because


1) it is difficult to enforce confiscation when the sec school kid needs it for school projects and daily stuff. (please spare a thought for his teammates who may be waiting for his reply/input via WhatsApp).

2) it is easier to win an argument with a primary schooler than a teenager (in terms of hp usage rules)

3) you need to allow a time period for novelty to wear off. The kids will be excited about smartphone usage and you have more time/authority over a primary schooler than a teenager in how he uses the phone.

My P5 kid just got back his smart phone after having it confiscated for a week for violation of a rule. Next offence will be two weeks confiscation. He uses a non smartphone for calling from school. My teenager went through a similar phase 4 years ago though I never needed to confiscate his. This Ds2 knows how to hide stuff in his phone, but I have ds1 (who is the most tech savvy now in the family) to help me police

(Ds2 knows I scare of lizards so he would put lizards wall paper on his hp to catch me off guard when I check on his phone :spank:)

[mummyxoxo]

For my dd2 (who is currently in primary 3), I gave her a phone when she was primary 1. More for communication purposes.

[jkids]

Thanks for all your inputs.


May I know what phone model u buy for your children? What’s the price range?

Even though I will be Telling my child the rules n do’s n don’ts, I can’t help but worried for a few things.

One of my main concern is,the adullt website they may chanced upon. Is there a kids mode package I can subscribe to?

N the strangers online n frens app she may use to make frens.

I can’t be possibly checking on my kid’s hp all the time.

[sharonkhoo]

jkids:

Thanks for all your inputs.


May I know what phone model u buy for your children? What's the price range?

Even though I will be Telling my child the rules n do's n don'ts, I can't help but worried for a few things.

One of my main concern is,the adullt website they may chanced upon. Is there a kids mode package I can subscribe to?

N the strangers online n frens app she may use to make frens.

I can't be possibly checking on my kid's hp all the time.

Phone - just a normal phone, mid-range, nothing fancy.

Rules - set them out clearly, as well as penalties for misuse. Monitor closely for the first few months until you are sure your child knows how to behave. Act firmly and impose the penalties if the rules are broken. One of the rules should be no befriending anyone they don't know in person. I believe there are ways to block some sites but I haven't used them.

I would \"check up\" on my kids without seeming too intrusive (although they knew what I was doing!) by initially asking what new things they had used their phones for, asking them to show me interesting stuff, asking what sort of conversations they had on social media etc. We've always been quite close so my kids are used to telling me stuff, and I try not to be too judgemental as long as it's not bad or harmful. They often read out stuff to me while they are checking their phones.

[Snow24]

Hi


What is the prepaid card and plan to get for child.

Anyone can share the brand and phone model and price.

I checked with M1 they dont have student plan and exceed the GB they will charge accordingly for post paid hp.

So seemed like prepaid phone is better easier to manage child’s usage.

[sharonkhoo]

Snow24:

Hi


What is the prepaid card and plan to get for child.

Anyone can share the brand and phone model and price.

I checked with M1 they dont have student plan and exceed the GB they will charge accordingly for post paid hp.

So seemed like prepaid phone is better easier to manage child's usage.

If you child needs a phone to be contactable or to contact you, you will always have to top up even if he uses up the prepaid allowance too soon, so the measure of control of letting it run out may not be an option. If you child doesn't need to surf while on the road, perhaps you can get a plan which doesn't have data to start with. Messages between him and family can be sent by sms. I think many kids get into trouble because they get carried away with data use. It's also not very safe as they are tempted to walk while using their phones. My kids were on prepaid, no-data plans all through sec school and JC. They would use wifi at home, at school, and if they could get free wifi here and there while outside. My older girl only started getting a data plan (still prepaid) in university. We decided on no data initially, and they were fine with that all the way so we never changed. My younger daughter will finish with JC this year and will probably get data next year.

For prepaid, non-data plans, we have used both M1 and Starhub. Both seem OK. For phones, there are those new cheap Nokia smartphones and there are many basic phones. For young kids, that should be enough. You don't want to make it too tempting to play games and surf.