Mobile phones for 13 year olds?????

[vimar]

I finally caved in and bought my son a mobile phone for his 13th birthday. The phone itself only cost $79 with $10 credit.
2 days later he had $1 credit left. I caved in again and bought $20 credit and by the next day he had $7 credit left. My problem with this is he wasn't even making calls, he was sending wallpapers and stuff. Needless to say, I am not buying any more credit, much to his disgust. He cannot understand that he is simply wasting money. I know it's my fault for giving in to him, but no more. I say he needs the phone for emergencies if he is stuck somewhere (which he never is anyway), but he just wants to use it as a toy. What are others thoughts on the subject??

[Away With The Fairies]

My children are 8 and 9. They both have mobile phones and so far have used them sensibly.

[FrankyR]

I'm 12, I have a crappy 0$ razor that doesn't let me text and I barely use it.

Yeah you caved bad.

[stanlin]

My argument has always been, how the heck do parents leave their kids some where for them to get stranded in the first place. I worked for a living and my children were still able to go places and do things without a cell phone. I knew where they were and someone was looking out for them. The problem seems to be now that everyone is expecting someone else to be watching their kids, where we had designated adults doing it and we knew who they were. Cell phones are just another baby sitting tool adults use. And nothing is more ridiculous than watching a bunch of teens in a restaurant sitting at a table together and everyone of them is on their phones, they want even hang them up for the waitress to take an order. We are only teaching our kids to be rude and disrespectful and if your kids are in a situation where they need emergency care, they shouldn't have been there in the first place. I'll get a ton of thumbs downs here, not just from kids, but sadly from parents who have justified giving their kids a phone in order to "keep up with them". But then last week on the news a high school was talking about doing random drug testing on kids in sports and a mother was saying she felt that violated her sons civil rights. You would think she's appreciate any help she could get, her son was driving a new Mustang and what was he doing behind her during the interview....yep, talking on his cell phone.

[CarrieDoway]

Hes acting totally spoiled, he can top the phone up himself in future. My kids get phones when they go to secondary school so they can keep in touch, they get a £10 top up every so often that is used for texts and calls that cannot wait. If they go over that then the next top up comes out of any money they have...if they have none then it would come out of their next birthdays money...simple as that. My 14 year old son has only ever had 3 top ups...he just doesnt place much importance on the phone, its not treated as a toy. The girls used it more but only ever topped up once a month (£10)

[mishu]

I got a mobile when i was 11.I know it sounds young,but my mom had bought it for me cause of emergencies too.I'm 13 now and my mum just spoke to me a few days back about the credit,how much to use,and when to use it.Guess you should talk to your son about it too and explain everything to him.I'm sure he'll understand,or else,just take the mobile away from him for a few days to scare him or to put the message into his head.He will understand then I'm sure.
All the best.
And for people who think I was really young to get a mobile when I was 11,go away.My mum knew what she was doing.

[Heather J]

I think as soon as kids are big enough to go out on their own to see mates or shopping in town then they should have a phone. It means you can keep tabs on them and they can call you if there is a problem.

However, I'll get my daughter (she is 4 so it will be at least another 10 years) one of these where you get calls to your home landline or one other mobile (mine) free. I think it's called a family plan or something. This way once the credit is used you know they can still make emergency calls if needed.

My brother's child has a mobile and one month ran up a bill for £85! She now has a 'pay as you go' as described above and my brother pays for £10 a month credit for her - and thats it.

I've no idea if you can change your son's phone in this way though?

Edit:

Okay - 'googled' it.

Now your kids can always stay in touch with Vodafone Family. It’s the perfect way to bring the people closest to you even closer.

Simply choose up to 3 other people to make up your family group and calls between all of you are unlimited. You pay just £5 a month and all four of you can make as many calls as you like to one another, at any time. It doesn’t matter if you’re a pay as you talk or a pay monthly customer, as long as all four of you are with Vodafone.

That's an example of what I mean - he could have you, his dad and one other person on the call plan.

[Tangerine_is_cool]

Well, my family made the rule, when you get you temperary license, you can get a cell phone. (Responsibility)....I think if he wants more credit, he should buy it....or you should go into his bank account, and get the money out....use it for his phone, and then he would realize how expensive it actually is!

[NiCOlE_]

he isn't ready for one yet. when he can prove that he'll be responsible and use it wisely, give him one then.

[- - Whizzee]

I used to do the same thing and when i first got a phone i wanted to use it as a toy sending wallpapers and getting ringtones from jamster etc which advertise alot on the tv. For those you pay like £4.99 a week for a few ringtones! It's ridiculous. Anyway, bluetooth or infared are different ways of sending them and plus it's free. I mean you have to be within range to send it to the person and for infared your phones should be touching and it's all built into the phone. (Obviously if it's a fairly up-to-date phone) I agree though, he does need a phone to be able to contact you. Explain to him what else he can do?

Hope this helps.
Good Luck.