Does your child need a Smartphone? Well, it’s a tough question to answer specially in this era of technology. As a parent you need to consider few most important questions such as what age is perfect for kids for using a Smartphone. Are restrictions and controls necessary? Here is this article you will learn how to prepare a child for “telephone” responsibility.
Today, the phone and the Smartphone are constant accessories for both children and adults, and a table setting item, and a “reassurance”, and a thing that demonstrates the status and love of parents. Where children can use smartphones and for study and adults are using smartphones of various other purposes including social media, communication or even view someone’s snapchat history.
Gone are the days of direct designation – to connect close people with each other and to arrange a meeting with distant ones. Now the mobile phones have become well-established rules of operation and understanding about its harm and benefits is also become an important factor that need to consider.
Every family and country, alarmed by the telephone epidemic that swept the world, comes up with its own rules. At the same time, schools are gradually switching to electronic textbooks, video tutorials and tests on smartphones. In the Internet format, you can study completely without letting go of your smartphone, all lessons and all communication with the teacher take place inside a small box. Is this good or bad? We can only speculate, since there is not enough scientific data on this issue yet. An entire academic field has emerged – M-learning, which studies the impact of mobile devices on the learning process.
At what age can a child use the phone?
This is absolutely your family business: to decide that your child can already have his own phone. And here the question is not about age, but about the level of maturity of the child, understanding how much he needs a phone, and also about your financial capabilities. When a child has a telephone, it is not only a communication channel, but also new capacities for viewing and producing photos, video products, toys, and access to world knowledge and music. If you think that your children can easily figure out the technical component of a smartphone, this does not mean that they will easily learn how to use it correctly. You may have to say to some children, “No, it’s still early.”
How to talk about safety?
Until we have cybersecurity lessons in the country, you can help yourself and protect your child from risky content and inappropriate activities by educating him about online safety. You can also talk to your child about managing security and privacy settings on your phone, such as checking the privacy of social media profiles. Tell us why you shouldn’t enter personal data – name, address or date of birth in online accounts or forms, accept new requests to add friends on social networks from strangers. Explain that gender, age, and social media photography may not match reality.
Discuss how to check which apps are using location services and disable which ones it doesn’t need right now. This can ensure that your child does not share their location with strangers they do not know. Your child also needs to learn how to use their mobile phone in such a way that they do not become a cyberbuller themselves: do not create or forward offensive or derogatory letters, photos or text messages.
Adequate use of gadgets is an important part of a modern person, and we have to learn to own them ourselves and at the same time teach children.
Luciana joined our team as a mum blogger in 2020. A dedicated mum to a lively daughter and a dog, Luna, Luciana brings authenticity and passion to every post. Her expertise in parenting and lifestyle topics offers practical, relatable advice for real-life situations.