Ep 24: Before You Hand Your Child a Cell Phone or Open a Social Media Account

The latest studies reveal that the average age for a child to get his first smartphone is 10.3 years old. And by the time children are 11 ½ years old, almost 40% of them will have a social media account. Listen, mom…Before you hand your child a smartphone or allow him access to social media you must have a conversation with that child, many conversations, actually. Today, I’m giving you Part One of a list of talking points to get that ball rolling. 

In this episode, I’m going to talk about

  • Rules for Phone Usage

In EP25, I’m going to talk about

  • Guidelines for content and behavior in texting and posting
  • Rules about sending and posting pictures
  • Guidelines specifically for social media
  • And finally, a discussion about your child’s identity

Rules for Phone Usage:

  1. As a foundation, be sure you tell them
    • How much you love them
    • Who owns the phone (that would be YOU)
    • That someday they will make all their own rules
  2. Decide time-of-day limits
  3. Where the phone will charge and what time it needs to be there
  4. Don’t ignore their calls and texts (especially from you)
  5. What they can expect with responses from you
  6. Dinner table rules
  7. Using the Internet behind closed doors
  8. How to handle the phone when they are with other people in the same room
  9. Can they text members of the opposite sex?
  10. Nothing is private on the Internet

And remember, the goal here is to establish these rules when you first hand them a phone and eventually, give them more and more freedom as they show maturity and responsible behavior.

Links and Such

Download a customizable phone contract

Glennon Doyle’s blog post about privacy on the Internet

KidBridge will allow you to monitor your child’s text on a smartphone remotely

The prayer I prayed is from the book Prayers That Avail Much (affiliate link)

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To help you find balance with social media and all other things, get Finding Your Balance, an 11-Lesson Bible Study.