Considering a first phone for your child? Read this first!
Your One Step this week:
✓ If you're considering a phone for your child, use our Phone Options matrix to help guide your decision.
Parents have told us they don’t feel sufficiently informed to select an age-appropriate phone for their child. And when they do get a phone for their child, many feel regretful and overwhelmed by the resulting parenting challenges.
To help you with this major family decision and transition, we have created a Phone Options matrix to outline the range of current options.
A range of phone options - take it slowly
Looking from left to right, the Phone Options matrix shows several options ranging from no phone to a full-fledged smartphone with all the bells and whistles. Basic features like calling and texting can meet the communication needs of children and families and are available on those products marked with an orange thumbs up.
As you look further down the Phone Options matrix, the toggle icon (in black or green) indicates additional features that can be enabled or turned off, depending on the product.
This image is an actual iPhone for an actual 7th grader. His parents wanted to allow basic communication but delay other features until they felt their son was more mature.
You can set up an iPhone to only allow texting, FaceTime, and phone calls while choosing to remove the App Store, Safari (internet access), as well as time-zapping apps like YouTube, video games, and social media.
Our top 3 suggestions:
When it comes to kids and smartphones, our top 3 suggestions to parents are:
1. Take it slowly. Very, very slowly.
2. Determine the essential need you’re trying to address, and provide the minimum tech to meet that need but nothing more. For example, if the need is to communicate with parents and friends, find a device that enables calling and texting only.
3. More features on a device require MORE parenting. To simplify your parenting role, remove unnecessary features.
Need more help?
If you’re looking for more support around giving your child a phone, reach out to our team of consultants at info@screensense.org. We can help you strip down an iPhone, set up Apple Screen Time, prepare to give your child a first phone, or reel in current phone use.
