first mobile phone for a 9yr old girl

[Platypus]

iPhone for a nine year old is a stupid idea IMO. Kids that age lose and break things. Best lose or break a £50 PAYG phone than an expensive iPhone.

[MPwannadecentincome]

Ouch - sorry about that. Sometimes we can inadvertently be a bit close to the bone.

No worries, I have to get over it sometime.

Sorry to hear that chief, hope you can sort things out for the best.

thanks, I hope so too.

Your daughter will call her mates and use up her credit so give her a monthly limit for top ups.
Also tell her about the reverse charge services and teach her how to use them, so when she doesn't have any credit left she can still get in touch in an emergency.

Good tip, thanks!

iPhone for a nine year old is a stupid idea IMO. Kids that age lose and break things. Best lose or break a £50 PAYG phone than an expensive iPhone.

Quite, well at least the OH is going to let ME take my daughter to the shops or browse the web to pick a suitable PAYG phone.

[stingman123]

Who actually wants the iphone, the daughter or the wife?

Put yer trousers on and sort the problem out, an iphone for the daughter will be a massive mistake, she'll probably get mugged within the first 24 hours, beaten up by jealous bullies etc....

Is it just me though or is the whole idea of a mobile phone for a 9 year old completely stupid?

yes,yes... my son is 9, but is not materialistic enough to want/need a phone. Where does your 9 year old daughter go where you wouldn't be?

[SueEllen]

All my friends and family with appropriately aged brats give the kids their old mobiles.

I have had brats I know beg me for my old mobile because it's better than the mobile their parents have given them.

There is absolutely no point giving a kid under 16 a new phone as they:
1. Can't use them except when they are out of school
2. Are prone to losing or breaking them
3. Risk getting mugged for them if they are decent.
4. Also if the phone can receive picture messages you risk them being sent porn, being bullied or wasting loads of money sending picture messages.

If you have to get them a new phone then get them something that costs a tenner. CarphoneWarehouse and Argos have a few.

If they want a separate music player then get them a separate IPod. However if you don't want your daughter to have hearing problems when she is an adult then I wouldn't.

[MPwannadecentincome]

Who actually wants the iphone, the daughter or the wife?

Put yer trousers on and sort the problem out, an iphone for the daughter will be a massive mistake, she'll probably get mugged within the first 24 hours, beaten up by jealous bullies etc....

Is it just me though or is the whole idea of a mobile phone for a 9 year old completely stupid?

yes,yes... my son is 9, but is not materialistic enough to want/need a phone. Where does your 9 year old daughter go where you wouldn't be?

I think its stupid too - if I don't get her one the wife will, better that I get her one.

All my friends and family with appropriately aged brats give the kids their old mobiles.

I have had brats I know beg me for my old mobile because it's better than the mobile their parents have given them.

There is absolutely no point giving a kid under 16 a new phone as they:
1. Can't use them except when they are out of school
2. Are prone to losing or breaking them
3. Risk getting mugged for them if they are decent.
4. Also if the phone can receive picture messages you risk them being sent porn, being bullied or wasting loads of money sending picture messages.

If you have to get them a new phone then get them something that costs a tenner. CarphoneWarehouse and Argos have a few.

If they want a separate music player then get them a separate IPod. However if you don't want your daughter to have hearing problems when she is an adult then I wouldn't.

I quite agree and yet, there are so many kids under 16 with a mobile. Re the volume from an ipod, well she has an MP3 player already, thankfully she is not listening to it all the time and when she does she seems to understand about not having it too loud.

[original PM]

probably get flamed for this but on the subject of technology for kids my daughter is forever on the Laptop playing on cbeebies and other kids websites.

I was thinking of getting her her own little net book or similar for xmas - anyone think this is a good/bad idea?

[MPwannadecentincome]

probably get flamed for this but on the subject of technology for kids my daughter is forever on the Laptop playing on cbeebies and other kids websites.

I was thinking of getting her her own little net book or similar for xmas - anyone think this is a good/bad idea?

I think its a bad idea but, what with the OH on her laptop for facebook and youtube and I'm using mine for work most of the time you will at some point have to buy another one for the kids - just put it in a place where you can keep an eye on them and setup all their accounts for them.

[MPwannadecentincome]

She was happy with her present

Well we found a phone in the end - she helped pick it, the Samsung C305 slider phone in purple with features that kids enjoy - such as taking photos within framed foregrounds such as hearts!

I bought it on PAYG from Orange so it came with a free bag of goodies including a decent set of full ear headphones.

Then the brother-in-law had to do one better, he bought her an ipod iTouch (which is basically the iPhone without the Phone).

Bloody thing needed iTunes putting onto one PC and only that PC can be used for synching now and it took ages to import all the music. Then our daughter wants to put the "portable" copy on the Ice Age 3 DVD onto it, which required the creation of an itunes account which required registering a flipping credit card! Great, so now she will want to download any bloody thing off itunes - don't they have child monitoring features on itunes????????

[cojak]

Great, so now she will want to download any bloody thing off itunes - don't they have child monitoring features on itunes????????

No, but purchasing is password-protected.

Just don't give her the password!

[NickFitz]

...don't they have child monitoring features on itunes????????

From the iTunes help file, third result of a search for "parental":

Preventing items from opening the iTunes Store

When an item is selected in the iTunes window, you can click the arrow next to the item to view it in the iTunes Store. You can prevent the arrows from appearing if, for example, you want to restrict access to the store.

To hide links to the iTunes Store:

Choose iTunes > Preferences.

Click Parental.

Select “Disable: iTunes Store.”

To allow access to iTunes U when the iTunes Store is disabled, select “Allow access to iTunes U.”

To prevent unauthorized changes, click the lock at the bottom of the preferences pane.

Related Topics

Downloading educational media from iTunes U

This also removes the link to the store in the navigation pane.