Jhon's Journal: On Adolescents and Cell Phones

I have often wondered why I see younger and younger folks with cell phones. Is this just parental doting? Or is there a real need?

I'm a parent of two young children (age 5 and 2). My recent experieces have led me to doubt if I ever will dote on my children in such a fashion. I have come to the conclusion that cell phones should NOT be in the hands of children (younger than 21 who do NOT pay for the service).

Why? I have recently taken over many mondane tasks for my sister -- who suffered a stroke a few months back. Including her cellphones/bills. Her two children (16 y/o girl, 14 y/o boy) each have a cell on the plan.

Their usage has been unbelievable. Some 800+ text messages each (at $0.05 each), 100+ hours each on the phone. Staying on the phone until 2am, 3am or even 6am on school nights. It has taken some serious effort to cut them down to what I consider to be 'reasonable'.

The 14 y/o has lost his cell phone all together. Consistent lying and late-night usage on school nights we well as stealing a cell phone out of his grandmothers purse, left me what I consider no alternative. He is unable to use the phone responsibly.

The 16 y/o lost her cell usage for about 2 weeks (I shut it off). She's allowed 1000 minutes per month TOTAL. 300 text messages per month TOTAL. As much as I would like to remove her cell phone completely, she has shown enough self-control -- particularly when I check the usage every day and see how long and how often she has used the phone.

Between these two kids, they have cost me close to $400 on cell phone abuse. The 16 y/o is paying me back her share and I've enslaved my nephew on all saturdays and some sundays to work it off at $5/hour.

Post Script: My niece almost lost her cell phone usage for the remainder of the month. She went over her 1000 minutes by a half-hour. I told her as long as I see NO usage (other than checking voice mail), it'll stay on.

If she's 16

[buffer-overflowed]

She's old enough to work and pay for her own things. That's what my parents did with me. If I wanted a car, I had to buy it myself and pay the insurance on it. Had I wanted a cell phone, I would've had to buy it and pay for it.

Wow, well over 1000 minutes? How do you do that? I have a cell phone as my primary phone and I never get it above 500 anytime. I actually *gasp* meet people for food and beverage if I'm going to have a seriously extended voice conversation with them. Or talk online. I think

Re:If she's 16

[Jhon]

The plan has 400 shared 'any time' minutes. The kids burned those up quick. I put a stop to that REAL fast with the first bill.

They were using over 6000 minutes each (over 100 hours) of nights/weekends/whatever which was just too excessive -- particularly on school nights.

As far as paying for her own things, I added a text message plan to her phone which she covers, as well as paying me back for all the 'extra' charges I covered.

It was my sisters decision to give her kids cellphones and she now regrets

Self-control

[johndiii]

We got my older daughter a cell when she went away to college, for two reasons. First, as a safety device. Secondly, we essentially had unlimited night/weekend calling, and the area code made it a local call for us. The younger daughter got one when she was 17. We currently have a plan that shares 700 daytime minutes among three phones. The kids are not generally a problem (they control their daytime minutes pretty well), though my wife nearly always goes over her allotment. We had a slight issue with

Re:Self-control

[Jhon]

We had a slight issue with late-night calling, but making it clear that it was not acceptable took care of the issue. That, and the realization that I got an itemized list of their calls

I wouldn't call the issue *I* had 'slight', but the solution was generally the same. Once my niece realized WHAT information was available to me on demand (time used, who called in, who she called, etc), she magically discovered 'self-control'.

She blew 500 minutes of her 1000 for the month the first DAY she had her cell