Children & social media - what is the best age for your child’s first smartphone?e
When talking to the parents of children of any age I often get asked „Should my 13-year old get a smartphone?“ or „Is my 10-year old already old enough to use the Internet?“. The answer to those questions is not trivial.
On the one hand, you as drawn towards your child opinion: “ My age doesn’t matter, I want a phone because my friends have one as well.” Kids don’t want to be excluded. The want to feel connected, they want to belong. For us parents, it’s not that easy. Although we use smartphones on a daily basis ourselves, we know that too much screentime cannot be positive. Having a phone too early can be counterproductive. We have heard about the risks that kids face when they use social media platforms. We don’t want them to get lost in the smartphone jungle or addicted to their phones. Therefore, we need to carefully evaluate the right age for getting our children their first smartphones and to trust our parental instincts.
As research as well as experience has shown there are many side effects to giving children their own phone at a very young age:
They are often unaware of the risks and dangers that come with unlimited or almost unlimited access to the Internet world.
Their brains are still developing and sitting in front of the smartphone all day does not offer any positive input for that development.
There are so many more useful and healthier activities out there which your child is missing out on.
They may miss the chance to make real connections in the real world instead of meeting with online personas.
The best decision for your child
Of course, there is also an individual room for tolerance. You know best how trustworthy your child is when it comes to sticking to rules and how mature they are in general.
However, in the best interest of your child you should still wait as long as possible and until you are feeling really confident and good about your decision. In the end, they will probably be connected to smartphones, the Internet and social media for the rest of their lives. We should let them be innocent children for as long as we can.
As a personal recommendation, I believe that no child under 14 years of age should own their own smartphone.
But how should we as parents best react when the topic of getting a smartphone is raised? How can we bring the message across why we think that a phone is out of the question for nows, even though many other kids at their school might already use them? And are there any clear signs that my child is ready to dive into the adventures of the Internet world?
To answer all of these questions, I developed my check-up offer. Much like obtaining a driver's license before hitting the road, children equally need a digital readiness test before fully engaging in the online world.
In this 60 minute coaching session, you’ll take my test and I give you advice on the readiness of your child when it comes to smartphone, social media, gaming and TV.