How young is too young for a cell phone?

My daughter Bri came home from school a couple months ago and asked for a cell phone.  Specifically a pink one.

She was six at the time.

I picked her up from after care one afternoon and she told me Cara* had brought her cell phone to after care and they were calling some guy who was yelling at them in French.  I asked her why her friend had a cell phone at school and she said I don’t know.  Then Bri asked if she could have one.

First graders with cell phones?  I got my first cell phone at 16 and it was an in-car one.  That was only because I was working, a manager for boy’s soccer and girl’s track and going out with my friends and usually the one driving.  Molly*, my co-worker,  2nd and 4th grade sons have cell phones, but they are for emergencies or to let mom/dad know they are walking home from school and when they get home.  I know every day when her sons call, her cell phone has their voices as a ring tone.

Pay phones are extremely scare these days, but if my daughter was at scouts or school, she could use the school phone or I’m sure her leader would let her use the cell phone to make a 30 second phone call.  Her Catholic school allows kids in upper grades to earn 3 tickets per quarter for phone calls home for forgotten lunches or homework.  They don’t want the kids to bring phones to school.  Our public high school allows kids to carry phones, turned off ,during the day.   Private high schools vary on cell phone policies.  Some allow them carried, turned off.  The Baptist high school my nephew attends, they are not allowed to have any electronics on campus, whether its an iPod or a cell phone.

Right now, I would be worried she would drop the phone somewhere and I would be on the hook for calls to Outer Mongolia or 900 numbers.  I think the cell phones geared to kids are too expensive for what they are.  I can get a phone for free, why would I pay $50 for a phone that can dial 5 to 10 numbers?  And cases in colors for cell phones are more available than jsut a few years ago.  No more boring black.

So, a couple weeks ago, I asked Bri about Cara’s cell phone.  Was she still making inappropriate phone calls at aftercare?  No, not anymore.  Bri informed me the phone was taken away after Cara called for a pizza when she did not like what mom made for dinner.  Cara got in trouble when the pizza showed up in the middle of dinner and Cara went to pay for it.

Kids grow up so fast these days.

*names changed to protect the innocent.  Or the guilty.

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