First phone for a child – at what age?

Nowadays, our children learn to use electronic devices faster than they learn to read and write. It’s a sign of our times that younger and younger children can flawlessly operate a smartphone. However, this results in something beneficial for parents – greater opportunities for remote parental control. This also raises the question of when is the right time to buy a child’s first phone? Let’s examine this according to several age ranges.

1. Young children – 0-3 years old

Should toddlers, who are still in strollers, already have their first phone? Probably not, although sometimes you can see on walks, in restaurants, or in the queue at the doctor’s office that children aged 0 to 3 are using a phone. This is most often the parent’s smartphone, which is used to occupy the child’s attention for a few moments. Cartoons or songs are played on it, which make the child calm and interested in the images on the smartphone screen for a while.

There is no justified need for such a young child to have their own phone. It’s better to wait with the purchase of a phone.

2. Preschool age

The preschool stage changes the lifestyle of the entire family. From the moment a child starts attending such an institution, their horizons broaden. They have the opportunity to learn new things, meet peers, make their first friendships, and develop in various directions. Parents may wonder if it is worth buying a child’s first phone at that time. However, you have to ask yourself: is it needed for anything? The child usually remains under the care of parents or permanent caregivers, except for the time spent in preschool. So there are no situations where the child would be alone and the parent could call them.

3. For a 1st-3rd grade student

In fact, the first moment when you can seriously start thinking about providing your child with their first phone is the school age. A new stage of education makes the child more and more independent. Parents may allow them to go out to the playground or walk to and from school. This makes them lose partial control over their child. The phone in the hands of their son or daughter becomes a tool for maintaining constant contact when they feel like it.

The problem is that children can be very irresponsible. They forget to take the smartphone with them to the playground, or instead of carrying it with them, they leave it in their bag or backpack, which makes it impossible for parents to reach them. An alternative may be buying a smartwatch for the child with GPS. The GPS tracker in the smartwatch will indicate the child’s current location. It is enough to link the device to the parent’s phone, and in the dedicated application, you can always check if the child is where they should be. The tracker works in a similar way to GPS for tracking cats or dogs. We can also set safety zones that the child should be in, and the smartwatch will send a message if the child leaves them.

In addition, the GPS Calmean watch has a useful feature that allows for making voice calls and activating call listening, thanks to being equipped with a SIM card.

4. For elementary school students

Children over the age of 10 now almost always have their own phone. This is probably the last call to buy your child their first smartphone. It will facilitate maintaining contact with parents and friends. In addition, at this stage, the child can still use the smartwatch.