Is your child ready for their first phone?

Ordered your new phone and planning on giving your old phone to your child? Read this article to determine when the best time to gift your child their first phone.

Getting a first phone is a key moment for most children, but as a parent or caregiver, it can be hard to know if they are ready for it. While there is a lot of advice around the “best age” to get a phone, parents and carers are best placed to assess their child’s readiness.

Optus Digital Thumbprint has developed the First Phone Readiness Quiz a tool that can help you decide whether your child is ready for their own smartphone, and what are the things to look for after they get their first device.

It’s part of the award-winning Digital Thumbprint program that has been expanded beyond the school gate to provide more digital safety and wellbeing advice to families at home too.

The First Phone Readiness Quiz can help parents and carers through a series of questions that consider their child’s social maturity; critical thinking; and digital safety and wellbeing knowledge -  as well their own, and family boundaries around technology use which is important.  The quiz is supported by a guide with conversation starters and family activities. Both resources are aimed at encouraging parents to talk to their kids about responsible technology and provide them with a starting point for those important conversations.

While there is a lot of advice around the “best age” to get a smartphone, parents are best placed to assess their child’s readiness based on their level of maturity and critical thinking capability.  

The transition to secondary school used to be a key time when children would receive their first smartphone, this has been trending downwards and many children are smartphone owners in late primary.

There are some important milestones that parents should consider that include social maturity and critical thinking.

Social maturity is about the way your child interacts with others in real life may indicate if they can stay respectful online and be responsible for how they use their first smartphone.  It includes:

• Ability to read social cues - do they pick up on social cues such as tone of voice, body language, facial expressions, feelings, and emotions.
• Can handle criticism or rejection online – would they accept, ignore, or take action against negative experiences online?
• Display self-control – can they step away from temptation and control their emotions?
• Have a sense of responsibility – can they keep track of belongings and personal information and store them safely?

Responsible smartphone ownership requires the ability to think critically about the interactions and messages they come across online. In fact, this ability can act as a first line of defence from different online crimes.

Here are some indicators that your child has strong critical thinking skills:

• Understanding actions and consequences - are they sufficiently aware and thoughtful around what they do or say and understand that actions may have long-lasting consequences?
• Help-seeking – would they feel comfortable to seek help if required?
• Understanding and maintaining personal boundaries for oneself and others – are they able to speak up and maintain boundaries?
• Maintaining healthy scepticism – would they be able to recognise hackers, scammers, or fake friends and would they know what to do when exposed to them?

What to do when your child gets their first phone

• Explore the safety features of a smartphone – Smartphones are a great tool to ensure the safety of your child. You can explore the different ways a smartphone can be used for emergencies with the activities below.
• Use technology to help keep your child safe – Different social media and gaming platforms have internal safeguards to keep your child safe online. There are also other tools and technology you can install to fend off cyber criminals. You can learn more about them by reading the Passphrases, passwords and MFA for your child guide or the Safeguard your child’s privacy on popular apps and games guide. Parental controls are also a great way to keep kids safe online with features such as monitoring device activity and blocking certain websites or apps.
  
  

What to do if your child isn’t quite ready their first phone

• Consider other options – Even if your child is not yet ready for a smartphone, there are great alternatives that your child can benefit from.

o   Examples include restricted Wi-Fi-enabled tablets, smartwatches without online connectivitylike Spacetalk Adventurer 2, or a mobile phone without internet access.

o   Using these alternatives also gives you and your child more time to develop their maturity and critical thinking before you decide later again.

• Keep learning – with our Digital Thumbprint resources that help get parents and children ready for their first phone. 

After considering your child’s readiness for a smartphone parents can also continue to engage with their child about how to be safe and responsible.

It’s important to continue to have open, regular conversations with your child around things like time online, when they can have their own social media accounts, or who pays if the device is damaged or lost. This can develop trust and understanding before, or when, anything goes wrong.

Once the decision is made and your child now owns a smartphone parents can help their child stay safe online and have a positive experience after getting their first phone.

Smartphones are a great tool to ensure the safety of your child. The Is your child ready for their first smartphone? Guide helps parents to teach their child about the different ways a smartphone can be used for emergencies easy with handy tips.

Optus Digital Thumbprint has a range of guides and quizzes that helps families learn more about being safe online covering a range of topics.

Learn more about protecting your online identity with the Safeguard your child’s privacy on popular apps and games family guide and Protecting personal information quiz.

Strong security skills are the first step to protecting your information online. For support to help keep your child safe online see the related family guide, tween guide and quiz.

Positive connections can quickly become unwanted contact online. To help your child stay safe from malicious strangers see the related family guide and quiz.

Not everyone is who they claim to be online. For digital defence moves to teach your child see the Recognising hackers, scammers and fake friends family guide and quiz.

Also the Hackers, scammers and fake friends tween guide and quiz. To help families talk about staying safe online there’s the Stay ahead of scams through family discussions family guide.

Empower your child to be an upstander when it comes to cyberbullying. To help your child understand what is considered cyberbullying and what to do about it see the related family guide or tween guide and quiz.

For tips and tricks on how to set your child up with healthy digital habits see the Balancing time online: How can I talk about healthy screen habits family guide, Lifehacks for a balanced time online tween guide and Digital Balance quiz.

You may also be interested in our articles Should parents buy their children a kids smart watch or kids phone? and Spacetalk Adventurer 2 Kids Smart Watch Review

Optus Digital Thumbprint supports digital safety and wellbeing for young people and families. Find out more at www.digitalthumbprint.com.au

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