This is a big debate that is going on throughout society many parents belive that children should have access to a mobile phone where as some parents disagree.



Firstly i think that we need to split this in to two categories 5-11 and 11-16.

I feel that there is no real reason why children between the age of 5-11 need a mobile phone.This is because they are either at school for the day or with an adult near by,parents only buy their child a mobile phone as they are a status symbol and want their child to have the latest technology and look cool with their friends.

However i belive that children between the agesof 11-16 who are starting secondary school have a more practical reason 
 for having a mobile phone.This is mainly because they are going to school on there own and parents/gaurdians will worry about them so it allows them to use the mobile to let them know they got there on time and are safe.They are then able to use the mobile incase of an emergency or to let people know they are going to be home late from school.This also enables the child to have contact with friends outside of school and dont make them feel as if they are different to everyone else.

Children these days have blackberrys or iphones the blackberrys are useful for staying in contact with your mates  through blackberry messanger where as on the iphone all you can do is text or call people.

A question is if the child is not earning any money how is the bill going to be paid?? the only answer is the parent will pay it but with the prices of contracts for the latest phones being as dear as they are can the parent really afford to pay it each month??

Another downside is that the children of all ages are prone to getting there mobile phone stolen and this can also lead to bullying in school and cyber bullying over social network sites like facebook and know one will know because we dont read each others messages.


What is your opinion on this matter??



update 1 on the 5/10/2011

thanks for your comments i have looked and read them carfully and i can see from your comments that most of you feel that young children should not have a phone till they go to high school.