Cell Phones

“The increase in media use is driven in large part by ready access to mobile devices like cell phones and iPods. Over the past five years, there has been a huge increase in ownership among 8- to 18-year-olds: from 39% to 66% for cell phones, and from 18% to 76% for iPods and other MP3 players. During this period, cell phones and iPods have become true multi-media devices: in fact, young people now spend more time listening to music, playing games, and watching TV on their cell phones (a total of :49 daily) than they spend talking on them (:33).”

In my humble opinion, giving children cell phones in elementary and middle school is literally inviting the enemy into your home. Without exception, when I make that statement someone in the crowd will say, “How will I know when to pick them up from events?” Almost makes me chuckle! I didn’t have a cell phone until Brian and I were married. Funny thing is my parents always picked me up from practice or games with no problem at all. In case of emergency, you can rest assured that in today’s culture there will be 15 cell phones within arm’s reach at all times. A solution that has worked well in our home is to have an extra phone that belongs to no one in particular. If my son has an away game and will be late getting home, he takes it. If my daughter is riding bikes with her friends, she will take it. But the majority of the time, it is plugged in to charge in our room. Since the phone doesn’t belong to them they aren’t able to give the number out to friends, etc. and it certainly isn’t a smart phone.

Another problem with children having cell phones is that friends and peers have complete and constant access to them. It was once the norm for boys to call girls and not vice versa. Wow, doesn’t that seem like a lifetime ago? The Father fashioned men to pursue women. Young men don’t have to worry with that today. They have 10 girls blowing their cell phone up before they finish a snack after school. He then decides which one it will be today. We simply were not designed that way. The truth is still that the girls who have their own life and interests are the ones who are interesting to a young man. Sure he will take what he can from the girl offering it, but in the end, it will be the young lady with a head on her shoulders and something going for her that he will pursue.

The statistic above stats teens spend less time talking on their phones than they do texting, listening to music or playing games. Teens will text things they would never say verbally. It removes inhibition and that can lead to all kinds of trouble.

“7th - 12th graders report spending an average of 1:35 a day sending or receiving texts. (Time spent texting is not counted as media use in this study.)”

Whatever the benefits of giving a child a cell phone are, they are far outweighed by the possible violations of their innocence and trouble they may find themselves in.

One more bit of advice, it is much easier to delay something than to give them a privilege and then try to retract it. Be very sure you are ready to begin the process of a cell phone before you buy the phone. Consider the pros and cons.

When you do decide to allow your child a phone or iPod, here are a few tips:

Both the iPod touch and iPhone require an iTunes account for set up and to allow the user to download music, movies, apps, or other content from the iTunes Store. I recommend setting this up immediately with a password that is private to you, and not shared with your child. This way in order to download anything; whether it be a song, or an app, your child will have to approach you to plug in the password, allowing you to have full knowledge of what they are adding.
A passcode is a great way to protect an iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad. It’s a security code that you or your child will have to enter every time you want to use the device. This is helpful in case your child loses the device–you wouldn’t want a stranger to get access to any family information, pictures, or phone numbers. Make sure to use a passcode that both you and your child can remember, and that you both know.
Install age appropriate apps. The app store has lots of fun programs that are so helpful for entertaining kiddos when you’re traveling, need some distraction, or are looking to interact with your kids.
Uninstall apps that come with the iPhone that may be inappropriate. I would disable Safari. There is no built-in content filter on the Apple devices, and none on this web browser.

Here are two web-browsers that have parental protection and filtering.

K9 Web Protection Browser
By Blue Coat Systems, Inc.
It’s free, http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/k9-web-protection-browser/id407657840?mt=8

Mobicip Safe Browser With Parental Controls
This is $4.99 and had positive reviews. If you want to customize the filtering you have to pay for a subscription service at $9.99 per year.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mobicip-safe-browser/id299153586?mt=8

Here are two programs that will allow you to see the phone calls and text messages your child is sending.

http://www.mobile-spy.com

http://www.mymobilewatchdog.com

Good luck,

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Cell Phones

Posted on June 17, 2013 in Uncategorized

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