Mobile Phones and Kids

Eldest now 14 asked for a basic phone, because he could never keep up with apps and facebook and bbm . Sim card from Vodaphone £8 a month 300 minutes and unlimited txts but no internet. This seems to be ok .

Also Tesco might be worth taking a look at - minimum pay as you go is £10 top up but they triple it so you actually get £30 so it lasts for ages.
Good luck - but if its ex who wants it ex should foot the bill.

My partner''s ex has just bestowed an iPhone 4 on their eldest (age 12). She already had a basic £10 per month contract phone (paid for by the ex so she can send her a million texts to her when she''s at her dad''s grrr) but now gave her the ''spare'' iPhone as the basic one broke.
(Don''t even get me started on how come the ex had a ''spare'' iPhone..)
I do actually approve of a 12-year-old having a phone, especially as she''s got a very long meander home from school and can be tracked down, but giving her a £150+ gadget to take to school everyday??? I give it 3 weeks before it goes missing....

My eldest has a very basic PAYG phone which is not locked to any network, he obviously wanted a smart phone (Iphone/Android/Windows Phone) but he was told no way.
I have a real problem with smart phones of all kinds in that although they are very good as ''very small netbooks'' as a phone they suck more than a little. I''ve tried all of them over time and none of them give me battery life of over a day or so assuming I make no calls at all. Now as an emergency phone this is a big fail.

I''ve not come across the facetime app, but from how it was described to me it was essentially a spy-cam in the making.

LB

Going a bit against the other comments here but both my kids have mobile phones (aged 9 and 7). The eldest was a present from his aunty who likes to spoil him but is very basic, the youngest is one of my very old cast offs. Anyway they both have PAYG sims in and no internet access.
Basically they are kept in the house. They love to get texts from Daddy and from aunties, uncles and granny etc. I don''t really see the harm in it. They never use it for calls.

I think its helped them to be able to send daddy a text to say ''I miss you'', especially when they are seeing him so infrequently.

Im with you James if she wants him to have one tell her its not a problem so long as she provides it. I asssume you fund the other childs phone? Does she contribute to maintenance by any chance?
Ive provided the phone for my eldest because I wanted her to learn about phone management before she moved on to the real mc coy - shes had a 7 quid orange cheapy 4 2 yrs and fair play shes looked after it,kept it charged and knows about credit and useage costs. Shes off to secondary school in sept and I know she needs something a bit better but shes evidenced to me she can manage a phone. Her dad ocassionally puts credit on it but we are now at the stage where theres no need for all the messiing about he can easily phone her on the land line and they skype eachother when both on line.

I bought my oldest a mobile when we split up. I bought it so ex could phone him whenever he wanted if he chose not to use the landline. Oldest was 12 at the time.
When my daughter started secondary school I bought her a phone.

I gave the mobiles to ex and put his mobile into their phones.

I topped them up, he never offered I never asked.

He has changed his mobile number a few times since though, and it would appear has done again without letting the children know (they''re old enough to keep in touch off their own bats now)as he''s not been replying.

He has phoned since on landline though...

I just felt that the children having a way of contacting their Dad without having to ask, and vice-versa was a good thing for them.

They were only bog-standard phones then. Older two are over 18 now so have some that aren''t quite bog-standard (but not iphones - they''re students. I''m only on minimum wage They do drop hints mind...!)