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Hi All
I need to buy a phone for my son - age 11.
What’s the current thinking for a decent smartphone. It’ll be used for WhatsApp etc and playing games more than as a phone.
It’ll be used as it’s too likely to get broken etc to be worth buying a brand new one.
Budget around £150 ish used (likely via CEX to avoid potential scams etc).
S/h iPhone SE 2020 from GiffGaff (phones are unlocked but have to buy a £10 Sim)
Dumb as dirt Nokia 3310, £60, battery lasts forever, can't be used for social media and its not worth mugging him for it.
Oh... and it's tough as old boots but if the little darling does somehow manage to lose or kill it I won't have to murder him.
Edit: sorry didn't see the gaming requirement, we've just gone through this exact process with our own 11 year old so I thought I'd post what we eventually decided to do.
Considering just how much bullying abuse and porn seems to flow through school WhatsApps I'm very glad he doesn't have access to it. He can lump it with classic SMS's for now.
My daughter will be getting whatever iPhone I have lying around in a desk draw when she goes into year 6, as my now 14 year old son did.
She sure as shit won’t be getting WhatsApp until she leaves home if I have anything to do with it.
I’d be all up for an old school Nokia for reasons other said above, but his twin sister has her mums previous Galaxy Note, and he used to have a Galaxy S21 (brand new) which got dropped within a week and his Mum won’t replace it (long story) so I’m stepping in.
So it needs to be broadly similar in capability albeit won’t be quite as flash.
He is generally very careful with things, this was a case of inexperience combined with bad luck.
I’m also wary of WhatsApp but that seems to be out of my control. Accepting that parents are able to view it when asked seems like a reasonable compromise
Xiaomi do some great budget phone. Look for a Redmi note at your price point
as an android family, whatsapp seems to be the best solution for face-to-face calls with grandparents on various devices.
What's the whatsapp concern when snapchat etc are out there?
My eldest (now 13) has had a samsung a21 for the last 2 years. Pretty basic, but lets him use YouTube, WhatsApp etc, and do his homework through the school app. He hasn't mentioned an upgrade yet, so it's done us ok!
Obviously the sensible parenting approach is to try and limit access to social media etc, it is very hard though as you also have to consider that not having access to it also presents opportunities for bullying and ostracism etc. iPhone with its parental controls helps somewhat but in my view, explanation of the potential misuse by others is better than a blanket ban. I don’t think there is a right or wrong way though tbh.
Motorola.
Will do the job and is not worth stealing.
Also you won't get too upset when it gets dropped, stood on, crushed or accidentally put in the washing machine.
https://www.hotukdeals.com/share-deal-from-app/4292131
https://www.hotukdeals.com/share-deal-from-app/4292224
Leaves ~£50 in the bank for buying a Nokia dumbfone when one of these gets dropped in a week's time. 😉
Hand them down what ever phone you have, and an excuse to get whatever phone you want?
TBH we are on apple so made sense for our son to be on apple as can control all his settings through our phones. We just get a cheap 'tough' case of amazon and screen protector. Worked so far for us
She sure as shit won’t be getting WhatsApp until she leaves home if I have anything to do with it.
Just shows how out of touch you are. Kids dont use WhatsApp at all, not even on their radar.
Only time our son uses WhatsApp is to chat with us old people.
Snapchat etc are far more worrying. My son has shown me his snap chat where he can pinpoint at least 3/4 of his class mates who do not have the privacy settings setup correctly.
IMO kids and mobile phones is like smoking and drugs etc. You cant stop them if they want to, all you can try and do is educate them and have a culture of openness and honesty
Given they are 11 they won’t be using SnapChat, WhatsApp or TikTok etc right?
Not on a Nokia 3310 they won't be 🙂
you also have to consider that not having access to it also presents opportunities for bullying and ostracism
My wife works at a school and we have multiple teachers in our social circle, what they see consistently is that the most vicious and systematic bullying now involves social media, it's particularly nasty as it can follow them home, unlike the stuff that happens face to face during school time.
He can have a smart phone when he's 15.
He can have a smart phone when he’s 15.
Why 15 ? Thats like Not allowing your kid to drink alcohol until they are 18 and then they go to excess.
IMO a kid will get bullied at school if they dont have a mobile phone. Also they are missing out on how a lot of social interaction happens these days (whether you like it or not as an oldie)
it’s particularly nasty as it can follow them home, unlike the stuff that happens face to face during school time.
Thats where schools need to link better with parents and parents need to be more switched on rather than just handing their kid a phone and walking away, which unfortunately does appear to be the way as described by my comment about snap chat above
Not on a Nokia 3310 they won’t be
Plenty of kids at school etc will have old smart phones that are shared with mates who dont have their own, or have dumb phones. With the ubiquity of wifi these days the lack of a sim card doesnt stop kids hten downloading anything they want. YOu wont have any idea what they are doing because you trust that the dumb phone is the pnly one they have.
Personally I went down the route of giving mine a (cheap second hand) android smartphone that I had access to, in the hope that if they did want an app like snapchat etc I could have a conversation with them about it. I also reserved the right to look at it at any time.
The other way to find out what apps your kids have is to be on them yourself - many of these apps will suggest you connect with people you know - and when your kids name pops up unexpectedly that is another opportunity to have a chat.
Just shows how out of touch you are. Kids dont use WhatsApp at all, not even on their radar.
The y6 whatsapp group that all da yoof are on in my 11 yo's school would beg to differ.
Just shows how out of touch you are. Kids dont use WhatsApp at all, not even on their radar.
Certainly not the case round here - most use WhatsApp and not being on it would make our y7 the exception amongst his peer group.
He got my old iPhone 6S with an otterbox, but I put a new charging port and battery in first. He’s broken the screen once (replaced with a parts-only one from Ebay for a tenner). We check the WhatsApp group from time to time (a condition of having it). Snapchat is a no-no - the parental controls stop it being installed.
I work in pastoral care in a secondary school. We are overrun with bullying over Snapchat, occasionally Instagram, WhatsApp doesn't even feature EVER.
It is all about being added to groups and then slated, or fake accounts spreading malicious rumours. I'd also add that it isn't always just children. Often it is parents too.
I get confronted with a raging Mum who wants me to listen to the recording of her having a foul mouthed barney with another Mum via Snapchat, at the weekend, and then demands that I do something about it!