I don't necessarily agree with  the statement.  "By giving them cell phones, we simultaneously promote a culture of materialism and send our approval that interaction with technology is more important than developing true social skills,"

some children use their phones only for emergency purposes or contact with their parents.  My son has a phone and he has only the numbers he needs to call programmed into it and is not allowed to use it for any other reason than those numbers. If he does use it for social calling, it gets taken away.  My husband and I rarely use the phone for social calling, just when it needs to be used.  Hopefully that rubs off on our son when he begins to pay his own bills.

I do see where John Cain is coming from but I have to agree with AB about the cell phones. Cell phones for kids can be as much about security as they are about being social. It's not hard to keep track of what numbers your child is calling. If you find out they are using the phone for social purposes, there are consequences. It's another opportunity to teach your child to be responsible.

I agree. Kids don't need cell phones unless they can pay for the bill themselves. All of these parents defending their kids' phones are simply trying to cover their own poor parenting skills by a) letting their little darlings to fit in with the rest of the spoiled brats; b) attempting to control their kids; or c) forgetting how they themselves grew up and how their parents kept tabs on them.

I'm sorry, but this whole child cell phone craze is ridiculous. While I admit there are certain special situations that would merit a cell phone, simply for a call to reach mom & dad isn't enough. Gee, when I had to reach mom & dad I used a friend's phone. Wow, remarkable concept isn't it? I remember calling home from the mall on a pay phone or a store's phone. I was taught how to ask politely to use a phone for a local call and I was NEVER turned down.

Lissa

you just said how ridiculous a cell phone is for children but in the next breath you said,"Gee, when I had to reach mom & dad I used a friend's phone. Wow, remarkable concept isn't it?"  You just contradicted yourself.  Unless you are a parent of an active child, please don't put parents down.  My son owns a $15 Trac Phone and we put $30 of minutes every 3-4 months on it.  He is a very responsible child who plays 2 sports, is active in school clubs and is on the honor roll while being in Gifted classes.  In no way is he a saint, no one is, but he is in no way a spoiled brat and not many  of his other friends have phones, so they borrow his.  So, if giving a phone to my son makes me a controlling parent of a spoiled brat, thanks for the compliment!:)

Lissa, the fact that your parents taught you how to politely ask to use a public phone was an example of them teaching you how to be responsible. Similarly, allowing your child to have a cell phone and only to use it in certain situations is an opportunity to teach children to be responsible.

I would argue that allowing my child to have a cell phone and charge up a $500 bill every month (way beyond what our budget can handle) without any consequences would make me a poor parent. However, simply allowing my child to have a cell phone for use in certain situations does not make me a poor parent.

While your parents may have taught you to politely ask for a public phone, you don't seem to have learned how to respond politely to others in a discussion.

My son is 10 and has been asking for a cell phone for years. I don't have a cell phone, but he has seen kids at school since kindergarten with them.

My neighbor recently bought one for her 11 year old who has absolutely no reason to have it. The mother never leaves her at practices, and the kid only uses it to text message other brats.

Don't even get me started with the $200 Coach and Dooney bags that are the middle school students' staple.

We will be sorry for the expectations we are setting for our children ... you'll see....

In my previous post, when referring to a "friend's phone" - that meant their landline, or their parent's phone - not another kid's cell phone.

Has the world changed so much in the past few years, that these devices that were previously only for professionals are now in every playground? And yes, it has only been a few years. In 2000, a child with a cell phone was unheard of. In fact, I only knew of a handful of my college classmates at that time that had them - and we were all computer geeks! Guess what - they were the ones with paying jobs.

Now, I'm no techno-phobe. I work in IT and have several cell phones since starting my first job post college. I know cell phones are great and my husband has had a blackberry for his work for many years. They can be a necessity for adults, but not for the vast majority of children.

It just sickens me to see how fast kids are forced to grow up and constantly be on the move. What ever happened to letting kids be kids, with the simple joys of playing with the neighbor kids at each others' houses or in the backyard? Do kids today need to constantly have things going on without being able to entertain themselves? Are their lives just so busy that they need PDA's and cell phones just to keep up?

This cell phone thing is so true. I never got a cell phone until I turned 18 and got one on my own, as well as having the job to pay the bill. Now, my cell phone is my only phone, and yes, it's a PDA even though I'm a 20 year old student. Having reliable, instant access to the internet is vitally important to me -- My husband's in Iraq and there's only so many hours of the day we're both awake and coherent enough to chat. I can't afford to lose my connection on the rare days he's off and can use an instant messenger for a few hours.

On the other hand, between volunteering, work, school and keeping my house clean and orderly, the cat and myself fed, the calendar is a life saver. My life is literally on my phone, and I'm extremely dependent on it to know what I'm doing. However, I only use it for so many hours of the day, and my bill isn't astronomical thanks to a job perk. (I sell phones for my job, and having the one I do has helped me make even more money by being able to show people how to use it and answer questions about it.)

I've also seen very many kids come in with broken cell phones and the delusion that they're only twenty dollars to replace. I've even seen a number of adults who don't recognize that cell phones are actually a couple hundred dollars' worth of technology. It all goes with the entitlement mentality that kids these days have. (Such as Kim's point about the hand bags. I carry a Coach because I did the math as to how many hours I needed to work for it, saved for it and paid cash for it. Not because I begged and pleaded my parents for a $278 bag.)

I totally agree with this article. My step daughter is the perfect example. She is a great kid, but I fear for her future because her mother is teaching her by example that life is all about what you can buy. (Though, the money goes to the mall while they choose to cram six people into a 2 bedroom trailer;go figure!!)And how expensive it must be. And how many sports and activities that you can sign yourself into. Against mine and my husband's wishes her mother got her a cell phone when she was 9. NINE!!   Things have just gotten way out of hand in this world. Time for a reality check.

I agree with you Lissa.  Back in the 70s and 80s before cell phones, if you got sick at school, the school nurse would call your parents.  If you were at a friend's house, you would use their parents landline phone.  If you were at the mall (what kind of emergency can a kid have at the mall, other than a financial one!) you had a quarter to use the pay phone.  Exactly what do parents consider "an emergency"?  Do you seriously think that your kid is not using their cell phone to call or text their friends?  Maybe not all kids all the time, but I would say most kids do it frequently despite their parents "rules"