How do your little guys use their phones?

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Yamin151
Posts: 2405
Joined: Fri Aug 30, 2013 8:30 am

How do your little guys use their phones?

Post by Yamin151 »

Our boys have non smart phones at the mo - as they approach 13 we may give on that one and I wondered how others use their phones and what 'house rules' (or not) others have?

- Do they ever take it upstairs? For limited time or down by certain time?
- Do they have internet access? What controls do you have on that and what they can access?
- Are you happy that they use it on the bus? In the car? On the sofa while telly on? Instead of telly?
- Do they phone or facetime/skype their friends?
- If you are absolutely honest, how much time staring at it?
- I can get smartphone with unlimited texts and a small amount of data for £8.50 - enough to check "insta!" but not to download vids on data plan. Is that enough for your guys?

Interested to find out, my feeling is that many children don't use the xbox/computer much, but when you look into it, they DO use their phones a lot. Not a bad thing, just different, and I just wondered how thats working out for you all.

Thanks!
scary mum
Posts: 8841
Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:45 pm

Re: How do your little guys use their phones?

Post by scary mum »

Yamin151 wrote:Our boys have non smart phones at the mo - as they approach 13 we may give on that one and I wondered how others use their phones and what 'house rules' (or not) others have?

- Do they ever take it upstairs? For limited time or down by certain time?
- Do they have internet access? What controls do you have on that and what they can access?
- Are you happy that they use it on the bus? In the car? On the sofa while telly on? Instead of telly?
- Do they phone or facetime/skype their friends?
- If you are absolutely honest, how much time staring at it?
- I can get smartphone with unlimited texts and a small amount of data for £8.50 - enough to check "insta!" but not to download vids on data plan. Is that enough for your guys?

Interested to find out, my feeling is that many children don't use the xbox/computer much, but when you look into it, they DO use their phones a lot. Not a bad thing, just different, and I just wondered how thats working out for you all.


Thanks!
Obsessively is the overall answer, although not much data as on wifi at home. Until recently they had no data plans but do have them now, but tend toi switch off data when away from home.
My youngest has to leave his phone outside his room at night, but other than that he pretty much is glued to it all the time. I hate it.
Yes they Skype their friends (often for homework collaboration, although more on laptops than phones).
Amount of time spent staring at it - far too much (me too)
Your data plan would be enough for any of us.
scary mum
Tinkers
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Location: Reading

Re: How do your little guys use their phones?

Post by Tinkers »

DD has one of our old iPhones and an iPad. The phone doesn't really get used much. She has it on mute at school and they aren't allowed to take them out except if the teacher allows them (to take photos of experiments etc usually).
The only time she really uses it as a phone is to text me on the evening she has piano lessons to let me know if she is coming straight home or staying at school to do hw and meeting me there later. She rarely phones me.

Her close friends all have either iPads or iPhones so they use the iMessage to chat to each other as a group or separately. Probably better than FB (or Instagram etc) in that regard, which none of them bother with. On an evening they will that to chat with each other for a bit but not for long, sometimes about Hw. I've not really seen them bother with FaceTime as that only allows a two way conversation and there's often at least 3 or 4 of them.

The rule is HW gets done first, but she will often listen to music on the iPad while doing it.

Phone/iPad never goes to her room at night. occasionally during the day if she is doing something like tidying her room, but that's for music.

She will use the iPad to watch stuff if she doesn't fancy what's on TV. She also was addicted to Pinterest at one point. She has never been a games person. Tbh she will spend more time on the laptop writing stories (some jointly with friends) than anything else. (Watch out for some epic novel someday)

She turns off data on her phone for some reason. Her package gives her 500gb a month and I doubt she uses any of it. I suspect the only other thing she uses it for is music, but she loves her music. You may have noticed.
RedVelvet
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Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2011 2:06 pm

Re: How do your little guys use their phones?

Post by RedVelvet »

We have set some fairly basic rules. No phones at mealtimes, when we have visitors (especially grandparents), or before they are up and dressed. The phones get put away as soon as they get home from school and have to stay away until all homework is finished, otherwise I think I'm fairly lenient!

The big one in our house is no phones in the bedrooms. Like all internet access I'm happier if it's in a communal area of the house. There is growing evidence regarding sleep patterns and blue light so definitely nothing for around an hour before bed.

I do keep an eye on downloads too (SnapChat is a big no). Sometimes if they are spending a lot of time on the phones I use distraction, board games, dog in need of a walk etc., although this did result in me getting wiped out in Risk at the weekend.

Also although I was happy to pay for a basic smart phone when my eldest wanted an iphone it meant he had to find a weekend job.
Proud_Dad
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Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2013 9:55 am

Re: How do your little guys use their phones?

Post by Proud_Dad »

Our DS is a similar age to yours and got his first smartphone at Xmas. I think he was the last of his friends to get one so we felt we had to finally bow to pressure! Cost is also £8.50 per month and the provider is a well known supermarket (every little helps!). This works out no more expensive or even slightly cheaper than what he was previously spending on his rubbish old Pay as you go. There is also a buffer (£2) which allows then to go slightly over the limits in case of emergency. The phone is a moto E and does pretty much everything you'd want from a smartphone and there are enough minutes and data for normal use. I have the same one. (Why some people are prepared to pay £40+ a month for an iPhone is beyond me.)

All smartphones have internet access, but you can set up restrictions with the provider to restrict access to 18+ sites (or 12+ if you want). Note while there is restricted data download when you're out and about you can use as much as you want at home if you connect the phone to your home wifi.

We try to discourage too much use for playing games on it and don't allow him to have it in his room after bedtime. (he doesn't spend much time in his room alone at other times)

He tends to use his phone now for checking homework etc on the internet rather than the family laptop which is a plus point.

I used to be quite against children having them but am starting to come round to the idea that they are an integral part of the modern world.
loobylou
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Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 5:04 pm

Re: How do your little guys use their phones?

Post by loobylou »

I have a 12 yo dd (nearly 13) and an 11 yo ds and they both have smart phones.
Looking at your list of rules:
Yes they take them upstairs / into their rooms but don't have them on at night. If we ever found out that they had broken that rule then I guess we would change it but they use them for their alarms in the morning so would find it difficult to not have them in their rooms.
They have internet access. They have it set to parental controls that we have on the home system (which are very stringent) and they are not allowed to access the internet without permission (except for What's App and Instagram).
They are paranoid about using up their data so don't use it much outside the house. We have a rule about "screen time" so they can't use their phone whilst watching TV but they could instead of (for example).
They What's App their friends, mostly by messaging, occasionally by calling. Neither of them have shown any interest in facetiming (is that only apple??) or any other video messaging.
Dd spends little time staring at it. Ds would spend all day if permitted. it is removed if he is on it too much.

Other points:
Dd has instagram. Ds does not yet. Dd does not seem that interested in it. She rarely looks at it.
Both spend most of their time on What's App. Both dh and I have most of our family abroad so they spend a lot of time contacting their relatives. Dd spends quite a few evenings sending screen shots of her h/w to friends.
Ds likes YouTube. He chooses to watch that for his downtime rather than TV. I would prefer him not to use the internet/YouTube for browsing but only for specific tasks but dh says I am out of date. Dd hates computers generally so can't be bothered to go on them.
Ds also listens to music on his phone. Dd likes the concept of being able to but doesn't do so. She would always rather read.
Both their phones are set up so we get copies of all their emails. All photos they take immediately come to our (parental) Dropbox. They are not allowed to upload any photos onto any site without asking, except What's App to family and Instagram if no other child is in it. They are not allowed to download anything without asking.
All internet access is in family rooms (other than WA).
I look at their phones and go on their sites and check their chats etc and they know that I will.

Sorry for long post!!
scary mum
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Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:45 pm

Re: How do your little guys use their phones?

Post by scary mum »

The phone is a moto E and does pretty much everything you'd want from a smartphone
The moto phones really are fantastic value, and as you say, do everything you might want - with the exception that the E "only" has one camera, so no good for the ubiquitous selfies. The G is also cheap & has two cameras.
scary mum
loobylou
Posts: 2032
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 5:04 pm

Re: How do your little guys use their phones?

Post by loobylou »

scary mum wrote:
The phone is a moto E and does pretty much everything you'd want from a smartphone
The moto phones really are fantastic value, and as you say, do everything you might want - with the exception that the E "only" has one camera, so no good for the ubiquitous selfies. The G is also cheap & has two cameras.
I second that. Both mine have a moto G and it seems very good value.
Proud_Dad
Posts: 500
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2013 9:55 am

Re: How do your little guys use their phones?

Post by Proud_Dad »

scary mum wrote:
The phone is a moto E and does pretty much everything you'd want from a smartphone
The moto phones really are fantastic value, and as you say, do everything you might want - with the exception that the E "only" has one camera, so no good for the ubiquitous selfies. The G is also cheap & has two cameras.
The lastest E that DS has (2nd generation) does have a selfie camera. I've got the older model which doesn't, but I can live with that! :D

It also has the google voice recognition thing which will more or less instantly answer any question you care to ask it in a human sounding voice. That still seems like some sort of spooky magic to me! :shock:
southbucks3
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Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2012 11:59 am

Re: How do your little guys use their phones?

Post by southbucks3 »

It also has the google voice recognition thing which will more or less instantly answer any question you care to ask it in a human sounding voice. That still seems like some sort of spooky magic to me! :shock:
The questions in the mind of any thirteen year old are rather scary, the fact their phone knows the answers and tells them in a human voice is flabergasting, but in some ways quite relieving. "How much does a f type supercharger upgrade cost?" "Darling I neither know nor care but Aunty Google will furnish you with the answer."

Little use on phones tbh, for music whilst exercising, morning alarms and taking photos and sometimes instagraming when out , with shock horror the occasional use as a phone, oh and car journey entertainment. However their I pads see a lot of action on the data side.
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