When should someone get their own cell phone?

i gave this a great question as i have been wondering the same thing. so many kids now have them – i see them texting – and i mean young kids, like 10 year olds, not just teens.

When the owner can afford one or when the persons loved ones want to buy one for them.
Your friend may have a good case if she plays sports or is in a club after school and needs to touch base with her parents. There are prepaid minutes phones that discourage goofing off and spending too much, which is a silly expense most new users make. These phones are great for school where I am sorry to say phones get broken, lost, or stolen often.

We’ll probably get a basic phone for our children once they are in middle school and doing afterschool activities. A phone only for calling us, their grandparents, or 911. No texting, no internet.

Both my kids have cell phones, they are 7 and 10. They are just little cheap, pre paid phones. The kids think they are really awesome to have phones, and I like it because I can call or text them when they are outside and I want them to come home. I think it gives them some sense of responsibility.

Like @MaryW said, when they can pay for it and it’s upkeep or if the parents feel the need to give the kids one like @casheroo says, no texting, no internet features.

I was sixteen and working when I bought my own phone and phone line, I had a very active social life with afterschool activities and managed just fine with no cell phone.

I’m at the age that I can look back and be thankful that we didn’t have cell phones where my parents could keep track of me. :-)

When they can pay for it.

I gave my daughter her first cellphone when she started going off with friends and without an adult, to places where she would have been otherwise unreachable. I would have worried too much if I couldn’t get hold of her if it was necessary, or if she needed to contact an adult for help. She was 11.