Posted on 01/01/2007 1:45:53 PM PST by Coleus
Joe Skarimbas was just learning to read when he decided he was ready to join the digital age. "When he went to first grade he said, 'When am I going to get a cell phone?'" said Joe's mother, Tara Skarimbas.
The Leonia family decided to hold off on getting young Joe a phone until he turns 10 and starts walking home from school alone. But his mother understands the temptation to get her son, who turns 8 this month, a cell phone as soon as possible.
"Just for safety purposes," she said, glancing toward the new Disney Mobile kiosk during a shopping trip to the Paramus Park mall last week.
As the adult and teenage cell phone market becomes saturated, cell phone companies are targeting younger and younger users. This holiday season several companies -- including Disney, Verizon, TicTalk and Firefly -- are pushing brightly colored cell phones specially designed for children as young as kindergartners.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
My kids school has them turn their phone in during the day. They get them back on way home and when they go to games, etc. We rely on them for communicating when to pick them up, when they will be home (for the driving one) and in case of assorted not urgent but important communications. It is a good tool, but like TV, radio, etc it must be controlled and the kids must be taught to control. The internet was not around when we were kids, but is now an essential study tool. However there is a great deal of garbage on it too. Teaching son how to handle this garbage now so he won't get addicted to it as a young adult who is free to do as he pleases.
Heck, I read yesterday that Saddam Hussein's uncle gave him a pistol when he was 7, and when Saddam was 10 he used it to persuade the headmaster of his school not to discipline him.
At least we aren't into that yet.
There are at least 15
registered sex predators within 8 blocks of
my home, two living across the street from
the park and 4 within two blocks of the school.
What the hell? How'd that happen?
I'll be glad when all cell phones are
equipped with GPS inserted at time of
purchase. Right now, that service is
available but quite expensive.
We do not have fancy extras like text
messaging and camera photo sending
on our kids' cell phones. But when I
want to know where they are and want
to get in touch with them, I can do it!
Beats jumping in the car and driving
around looking for them!
OTOH, the whole point of public skools is to train heads full of mush that they do not have any rights.
Random warrentless locker searches.
No free speech on tee shirts.
No junk food in their little lunch boxes.
Etc., etc., etc...
Payphone??? Our local HS and MS don't have payphones outside anymore. The office won't let them use the phone to call home or call parents at work ("If we let one do it..."). I sat in the MS office last year waiting for my son and watched the secretary tell a 12 year old girl she couldn't call her mom at work because it wasn't a local call. She said "You're going to have to have a local number to call." ???? Mom is supposed to give up her job to be at a local number??
The last time I left home without my cell phone I drove around 3 towns looking for a payphone. All the ones I knew of-been there for years-had been removed. I ended up driving all the way back home again. I can teach 'em to use a payphone (and they know-they even used to be able to call home collect on one) but you've got to find one first.
Your boys are blest. You have instilled
a desire for investigating their own talents.
However, I suggest that their needs and
desires are going to change in a very few
years. Teenagers are notoriously gungho
toward venturing beyond the back yard.
All community clubs have them, as do schools, malls. A calling card costs nothing, just ask your phone company for one. The school cannot deny your kid the use of a phone to call home. Once your kids are teens, then it's a different story but 6-8-10 year old kids? No way. they shouldn't be wandering around alone in the first place, so they do not need a cell phone. On the rare occasion they do, lend them yours. What does the law in your state say about leaving your 6-8 or10 year old kid alone without proper supervision? A cell phone isn't a replacement.
All? Hardly. Maybe in the boondocks, but not in any (over) civilized part of the world...
As I do not hang out in those places I will take your word for it. I just know at my place of business we took out the last of the pay phones a year ago.
they shouldn't be wandering around alone in the first place, so they do not need a cell phone.
Ah, I see, you live in Perfect. Never mind.
Liberal politicking and
Judges with no grandchildren
to worry about.
Payphones only let the kid contact the parent, they don't allow for the parent to contact the kid, unless the kid is chained to the payphone.
I never knew that was an option. :)
Damn, just damn.
FMCDH(BITS)
I never knew that was an option. :)
It really isn't. They can gnaw through the chains.
Every states phone companies are not equal I guess.
Most of us grew up without an internet, without email, without informative posting boards. That doesn't make those things useless today.
Whether he needs it or not, the cell phone we got for our 14 y/o son last year has been quite beneficial to him and to us.
As for the school tell them you'll sue them if they ever deny your kid to phone home in an emergency, that usually smartens them up.
Let me guess, Grendel9 is in California?
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