Saturday, March 8, 2014

There are no fast rules about the right age to give your child a mobile phone. But as your child approaches high school, it’s likely that others in his peer group will start to get their own mobiles, and your child might want one too.
When your child says he/she wants a mobile phone, you could talk to her about why she wants one. What does she want to do with it? Do many of her friends have mobiles? Try to understand why he/she feels it’s important to have her own phone.

When choosing a phone and plan, bear in mind that teenagers often use mobiles differently from adults – for example, they text far more than they voice call. Teenagers are also rapidly shifting towards using mobile phones as multimedia devices. This is because mobiles can be used as web browsers, cameras, photo albums, contacts and more. 

Advantages of mobile phones

Networking
A mobile phone will almost certainly become a very important communication and networking tool for your child. A phone of his own can promote your child’s sense of belonging and connection to both friends and family. It lets him stay in touch anytime and anywhere.
Safety
Mobile phones are one way for you and your child to contact each other whenever you need to. It can give you peace of mind and help keep your child safe.
Here are some tips for using mobiles to promote safety:
  • Let your child know he can call or text you at any time if he needs your help.
  • Familiarise your child with the speed dial function on the phone. Store the numbers she can call in case of an emergency.
  • Program your own number into the phone and save it under the name ICE (in case of emergency). If your child’s involved in an accident when you’re not with him, emergency services or others can call the ICE number to alert you. Note that this will be helpful only if the mobile phone isn’t protected by a pin or password.

Disadvantages and what to do about them

You can head off some of the disadvantages that might come with teenage mobile phone use by promoting safe and responsible mobile phone behaviour.
  • when it’s OK to take calls or reply to texts
  • when the phone should be on silent or switched off
  • whether your child’s allowed to have the phone in her room at night.
You might want to talk about and agree on consequences if the rules are broken.
You could also find out your child’s school’s policy on mobile phone use, and make sure your child knows what it is.
Talking to your child about limiting who should have his mobile phone number can help keep him safe. For example, you might suggest he shares it only with close friends and family, not strangers or people he doesn’t know well.
Big phone bills
You and your child can avoid big mobile phone bills by:
  • discussing the cost of mobile phone use and agreeing on a monthly budget
  • starting with a prepaid plan. The call and text rates are generally more expensive than post-paid plans, but you can set a monthly limit.
  • discussing with your child what the consequences will be if she goes over the plan cost when using a post-paid plan
  • disabling MMS messages (photos and video)
  • alerting your child to hidden costs – for example, texting to a mobile number to receive a ringtone (these are generally subscriptions that incur ongoing costs) or voting on a reality TV show via SMS (these texts can be charged at a higher rate than normal text messages).
If your child uses his phone responsibly, you might like to reward him with an upgraded handset or plan after 6 or 12 months.
Accessing the internet
With a data plan, your child could access the internet and download and upload text, images, games and other programs or applications. It’s very difficult to monitor or supervise your child’s internet access on her phone.

    Mobile ‘addiction’
    Many teenagers develop a strong sense of ownership and attachment to their mobile phones. They can be very upset if the phone’s taken away or lost. The following tips might help:
    • Back up the content of your child’s phone on your home computer every few weeks.
    • Agree on some ‘phone-free’ time on a weekly or daily basis.
    • Take the phone away only when you’ve agreed in advance with your child that this will be the consequence for not following agreed phone rules.
    • Teenagers sometimes lose or damage a phone or two before they learn to look after them, so it might be best to give your child an inexpensive handset as his first phone.
    Bullying and ‘sexting’
    If you suspect your child is being bullied via mobile phone, you can encourage your child to talk to you about what’s going on. Asking your child’s school for help is also an idea.
      You and your child should also be aware of ‘sexting’. You can minimise the risk of your child being involved in this behaviour by talking to your child about:
      • appropriate use of her mobile phone
      • the images your child thinks are appropriate to take and send to others
      • the images of himself that your child’s happy to have taken and circulated
      • your child’s attitudes towards the opposite sex
      If your child’s being bullied or is involved in sexting, she needs your help. If your child’s the one engaged in bullying behaviour, you also need to take action.

      Mobile phones: facts and stats

      • Mobile phones are very popular with teenagers – 65% of kids aged 12-14 years and 95% of kids aged 15-17 years have mobiles.
      • Among kids aged 12-14 years, 35% own phones with advanced features. The percentage goes up with age – 65% of those aged 15-17 years have advanced phones.
      • On average, boys aged 11-18 years spend 2 hour and 25 minutes consuming mobile media. The average for girls of the same age is 3 hour and 30 minutes.
      • Among kids aged 8-17 years, 35% use their mobile phones to take photos, 20% use mobiles for playing games, 20% use mobiles to listen to the radio, 15% use mobiles to record video footage, and 10% use mobiles to TV shows or clips.