Do 12 year old girls NEED cell phones?

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I so agree with this.

I was in the mall the other day and head a little girl talking. I looked and saw her on a cell phone. It felt...odd to see that. I think there are circumstances where having a "family contact phone" is a good idea. This should be a spare phone that is kept in the home and given to a child if they are going someplace with a friend's family for the weekend, things like that. It provides them the opportunity to call home if needed. I'm all about preventing your child from positions of risk and teaching them to be intelligent about choices they make. Having a cell phone for personal friend-to-friend use is a waste of money, in my opinion. Let them us the landline for a specified amount of time per night, and that's that. Kids don't need to be walking around with cell phones attached to their ears. Adults don't either, for that matter.

I disagree with your rationale. Kidnappers/evil people are not the only danger to kids. What if your kid is with their friends and they're crossing the street and one of them gets hit by a car? 911 would be useful...


And as for relying on technology.. Buildings still have a sprinkler system, regardless of the fact that the building could still burn to the ground.
Another example: someone who really wants to get in your house could do so, even if it's locked. But there are people who routinely will go around checking if doors are unlocked and if there's a security system. They only try to rob the house if it's easy. Yet most people rely on the fact that it's too much of a hassle to rob a house with a locked door and a security system. A lock is a deterrent.

I was given a cell phone at 17 when I got my driver's license, so I could call home if I had car trouble, got lost, or just had a change of plans. I still used the family landline to talk to friends while at home, and occasionally would chat on my cell if I was out, but rarely.

When I was 12 most people didn't have cell phones. Now, I think it is a good idea for kids who are going places without parents to carry phones. Even as an older teen and young adult, there were many many times when I was glad i had my phone. Usually it was because I just got lost, or decided to stay out later. But I can imagine many situations where it would be safe and convenient for 12 year olds and even younger to carry a phone, if not own when, when they are away from their parents. I believe there is a phone on the market specifically for kids and you can present the only numbers you want them to be able to call. Talking to your friends till 3 am instead of using the family landline is just ridiculous unless she is paying for it herself. (baby-sitting or selling her old toys on ebay are suggestions).

Bah, they're inventions of the devil ! ! (Cell phones, that is.)

Also, talking until 3 am is very suspicious. What's that all about?

We live in a crazy world where sexual pedaphiles are always in the news and living in every part of the country.

In my community, we had a 12 year old girl abducted while she was riding her bike home on a country road, in the afternoon, on a
bright, sunny day after participating in a summer church program for kids. The guy that kidnapped her was later arrested in
Massachusetts when he tried to abduct another 12 year old girl while she walking home from school. It was her quick thinking that saved her life and fortunately, there was a construction worker on a Bobcat nearby who came to her rescue.

To this day, they never found the body of Sarah Anne Wood and although the guy is in prison, he refuses to tell the authorities where he buried her body. All they have is her clothing which was found in the guy's apartment.

Sarah Anne Wood's father was the minister of the church and I am certain he and his wife wish that they had provided Sarah with
a cell phone. She would be 25 years old now.

Why not teach her how to act responsible, limit her telephone calls and allow her to have it in her possession ONLY at certain times when she is away from home? Her life may depend on it.

No, no, no - it's not either/or, it's and/and. Nobody's going to give their kid a cellphone and then throw caution to the winds.

I know a great many women who can tell of being followed, as young as 12, and a cellphone would have been a big help.

I know a woman who was followed and attacked by a gang on her way home from the library, at the age of 14.

Both of these were in squeaky clean suburbia.

It's the same reasoning that we use for karate - don't get reckless, but if there's an outside chance it melt help, then go for it.

That's my point, yes plenty of people "throw caution to the winds". I gave specific examples of people relying on false senses of security and paying the ultimate price. I'm sure someone witnessing an accident or is stranded may benefit from having a cellphone. But I'm talking about the inherent problem of having some kind of appliance that enables a young person to get in that precarious situation in the first place.
Yes, there was at least one case of a college-aged girl stalked and abducted from a mall, later killed. Her cellphone didn't save her. Yes, there are stories in the paper about families moving from the inner city for the "safe" surburbs and lose their children. It takes minutes to abduct an unattended child and a cellphone won't save her. Heck, there were witnesses and everything.

Yes, a person can use a cellphone to report an emergency. However, it's unwise to gamble that a cellphone will save your life or protect you from predators. Most rapes are committed by someone you know, not strangers lurking. If someone was stalking me and "jumped" me in a parking lot, the last thing I"d reach for would be my cellphone. I'd fight for my life and sanity.

It's a sad world today, but girls ( and boys, too) are in danger every time they walk outside their front doors. Pedophiles and mean people are everywhere, it seems. A cell phone is a good idea in case a kid must call for help--- but many kids will use their phones and just talk with their friends and use all their minutes. So, parents could have the kid earn the $$$ to keep their phones supplied with extra minutes, with the parent supplying what the parent thinks is a fair amount ( anything extra would be the kid's duty to supply). All cellphones (at least in this country) are able to dial 911 for free--- so even if a kid is in danger and they have no minutes on their phone, they can call for help in the case of emergency.
Cellphones can't save people in many cases, but they can get help to the person at times. Even if one life is spared, it is better than no life spared.
And as far as kids are concerned, no place is safe anymore--- there seems to have been a rise in kids being abducted or accosted in their own homes lately--- one that made national headlines was the john Couey case less than an hour from where I live. She was taken from her home at night and killed. Where is a person safe these days?

I would have to say yes to this, our AS teenage son has one. It is their for his safety, and we feel better being able to contact him when he is out.

He knows it is not for chatting to friends, he can use the landline for this which I pay a flat rate for and he can talk all day if he wants. I put £10 on every 6 weeks say. Someone mentioned a spare phone that could just be taken out when and if needed.

Staying up to 3am talking...I would not allow that anyway.

Need? Who really needs one? We all did just fine without them for a loooooong time, but now they're common enough. Anyway, sounds like a fine subject to learn, for example, budget management.

I'll have to get back to you folks on this. I have to get both of my 10 yr (almost 11) olds to school , without cell phones.

You're saying a cellphone enables somebody to get into a precarious situation? I can't imagine anybody muscling into a dark alley because they are armed with a cellphone.


I agree that a cellphone doesn't make us safe. Nothing does. On the other hand, I used to live across from a playground and I've seen crying kids phone home (and their Mom pulls up in a car). In police reports in the newspaper, I read that someone was seen to (probably) call 911 and the bad guy disappeared. It's not a guarantee, but but it can make a difference.


Agreed - but nobody's gambling on absolute safety. We're trying to improve the odds. Also it's about other situations where a kid might be better off calling home.


Most murders are committed by a family member, and the 911 tapes are full of calls for help. "Most" doesn't cut it. If there's even a 1% chance that a cellphone might help, that's enough, give the kid a cellphone.

Also - it's not all about crime prevention. It's about calling home when the gym class let out early so the kid doesn't have to hang around. And I think a kid needs a cellphone in the mall, again for calling home.

This discussion is so exciting that I clicked Submit, picked up my keys, put on my cap, and went downtown without my cellphone.

Give her a phone that isn't hooked up. You can call 9-1-1 from any cell phone as long as it has batteries, and they will be able to track the location.


As for socializing, WHATEVER happened to kids go out together in a big group or going to meet at each others' houses?

I thought the original question was does a 12 year old NEED a cell phone?

The straight forward answer to that is NO.

The discussion has grown to does a cell phone make it safer for a child to be alone in the world or if you prefer when out and and about.

I feel one of the corallary questions here should be, When is a child old enough and mature enough to be allowed to go out on their own? I have seen 18 yr olds demonstrate less maturity than some 8 yr olds. Is the child responsible enough to be expected to use the device for its intended purpose?

Peer pressure on our kids will make them tell us, "I'm the only one without a phone", do you believe them?

My kids don't have their own phones. They may have one when they can purchase their own and maintain it . That will be the true test of "Are thet ready to have a cell phone.

That's exactly the real topic, Corsarzs. I reflect on what my parents were doing with me at 7 (my son's current age) all the time. Sometimes I feel that I'm doing better by my son but other times I question if I'm not allowing him to make mistakes.
I didn't have the developmental delays like he has, so I'm different in that regard. But I was left alone for up to an hour or so in the house and knew what was expected of me. By 8, my mom was letting me come home to briefly empty house. I'd never leave my son at this point. I only recently started locking the bathroom door for privacy.
Also at his age I was allowed to stay in a store alone and later meet my mom in another part of the mall. Heck, I still hold my son's hand in public and make him go potty in the family bathrooms.

I have assumed that the 12 year old in the original post is an Aspie?