When I was in 6th grade, I went to Washington D.C. for a week with my class, no parents. When I was in 7th grade I spent a week in Hoover for a Junior United Nations Assembly, no parents. In the 8th grade? Beta Club convention in Montgomery for a week, no parents.
I did all three without a cell phone, and lived to type about it.
Cell phones are convenient, I agree. But without them, civilization would carry on.
P.S. I just stood on the side of a busy highway for 2 hours diverting traffic because of a 4 car accident with serious injuries. The cause? You guessed it, a 16 year old texting.
Token, I don't think anyone here would argue that it is a life sustaining necessity for a 13-15 year old to have a phone. But the "we got by without them when we were kids" argument isn't a good one in my opinion. We also all got by without check-cards/credit cards, pay at the pump, online banking, cable TV, etc back in the day too. We got by without the internet...especially the internet on my phone accessible from anywhere in the world.
However, all of the things I mentioned above, when used responsibly, have made a lot of functions of life much, much more convenient. Sure, they can all also ruin your life. But having your 13-15 year old carry a cell phone can be of great benefit....if used responsibly. I do agree that it's the parents job to see to it that guidelines are in place to ensure the responsibility. But that's true of everything in our child's lives...whether it's how they use their brains, bodies, words, attitudes, or how they use their cell phone, cell phone camera, and texting....in the end, it's our job to guide them to making good decisions.
It's similar to "the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil"...
money is not the root...but the
love of money. The
cell phone in the hands of a young teenager is nothing but a help to all involved...the cell phone in the hands of an
irresponsible teen could potentially lead to trouble. I even add "potentially" because it's not as if the cell phone is inherently dangerous. It's not as if we're giving them a gun or drugs and hoping they're responsible.
Anyway, to me, in the end, we can't really have a definitive answer to this anyway. Like most things in life...as kids grow up, different kids will be of different maturity levels and be able to handle certain responsibilities at different times. There are some 40 year olds that aren't responsible enough to have a cell phone. And there are some 15 year olds that I would trust to manage my money before some 50 years olds. So for each of us with kids, we're going to make those calls as the time comes, and the right answer for you may be different than the right answer for someone else.
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