[jchung]

I have kids who will soon be teens. They don't have phones yet, but I can see the decision looming: my ability to communicate / coordinate with them plus the fact that a huge portion of their social life will migrate online on one hand vs. all of the dangers on the other.

This is why a lot of parents start with smart watches or restricted phones. They try to get the communication / coordination benefits without the online social risks. But that only lasts so long.

I'm not sure how I'll navigate it. Probably not by saying "no to that stuff until 18".

[rsync]

"I'm not sure how I'll navigate it."

I am not going to address the broad set of questions here but I want to point out that two items exist:

1) No-data SIM cards ... they call and text only ...

2) imessage only access point - fairly trivial to set up.

So ... a child can be given a phone - even a smartphone - and it can't be used as a social media device when the family wifi turns off. Further, you can heavily restrict family wifi without curtailing normal phone talking if you have an imessage/facetime only access point.

Again, no magic bullets here but some tools that you might find useful.

[Zelphyr]

I put off letting my kids have a phone until 14. They had tablets before that. If I could have done it all over again, they wouldn't have gotten any kind of device until at least 16. At best they would have gotten a flip phone.