Mum angry with RM after son waits nine weeks for mobile

[clashcityrocker]

Children need mobiles when they are 9 because every other kid in their class has got one and being the only kid in the class without a mobile isn't much fun.
My older kids didn't get a mobile until they went to secondary school but my youngest one has just got his first mobile aged 10 (nearly 11)
I got my first one aged 45.

[Lounge Lizard]

my kids have had their mobiles from about that age too. It's a different world to when we were kids. We could go out and play without fear of pedophiles (I hadn't even heard of that word at 9yrs old, how many 9yr olds could tell u what it is :o). Or other kids. Or traffic. Or...

Just so many things have changed. I hate even letting my lad going to the football fields that are local as he has 4 busy roads to cross to get there. It's like a rat race, especially at rush hour.

So how many paedophiles are there now and how many were there thirty years ago ?
Or are you a Daily Mail reader ?

And can't a nine year old be taught where the crossings are, how to use them and how to take responsibility for oneself if he wants to play football ?

[Judgee]

More to the point how the hell will having a mobile help a kid if they are caught in the cutches of a pervert or run over by a car?

[Lounge Lizard]

More to the point how the hell will having a mobile help a kid if they are caught in the cutches of a pervert or run over by a car?

Exactly, and don't forget that if they go out with a mobile phone they abandon any sense of judgement, decision or responsibility, 'safe' in the knowledge that at the slightest dillema all they need to do is phone home. and then a few years later we all ask how it is that they can't cope with adult life.
When I were a 9 year old I would walk to school with the house key and let myself in when I had walked home after school, while slightly less responsible fellow pupils would have the key left under a brick near their back door, and none of us came to any harm through that.
The only mistake I made was not listening when the teacher said 'work hard at school or you'll end up as a postman'

[POSTMAN]

My kids and now my boy next year have them when they go to secondary school as they have to bus it.
There has been no need for them to have them before,in my house anyway.

[maisymoo04]

postman thort you lived in a postbox anyway pal haha

[TrueBlueTerrier]

As someone without kids I think mobiles are a good idea as with the right software you can track them online. http://www.childlocate.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

However 9 parents at least went way too far (ok 8 and 1 comedian joined in) http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/stop-a ... ns/#detail" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[andy2007]

But in some areas having a mobile makes a child more likely to be robbed.

That's why she always has either mine, or my Wife's, old phone, when we upgrade. That way, her phone never has enough "street cred" to be worth stealing. But she can use it in an emergency. The kid in the news article, probably wanted to have a better phone, so had to raise the extra money. Although I'm just guessing here.

[andy2007]

my kids have had their mobiles from about that age too. It's a different world to when we were kids. We could go out and play without fear of pedophiles (I hadn't even heard of that word at 9yrs old, how many 9yr olds could tell u what it is :o). Or other kids. Or traffic. Or...

Just so many things have changed. I hate even letting my lad going to the football fields that are local as he has 4 busy roads to cross to get there. It's like a rat race, especially at rush hour.

So how many paedophiles are there now and how many were there thirty years ago ?
Or are you a Daily Mail reader ?

And can't a nine year old be taught where the crossings are, how to use them and how to take responsibility for oneself if he wants to play football ?

Paedophiles tend to watch children, before attacking them. Which is when the opportinity arrises to phone for help. You're right about them being around when we were kids. But we didn't know about the dangers. Cases were covered up. Just look at how many cases have come to light over the last couple of decades, of people who were attacked as kids, decades before. But either no-one believed them, or they were too scared to report it?

[mazza111]

There's is only one crossing, on the 5 busy roads unfortunately. If he has an accident, then the paramedics etc can get in touch with home right away. You know that thing called a phone book that stores numbers like home and mum....


Jeez, where I came from I hadn't even met someone who was gay until I moved down south when I was 18! I had heard of 1 local ped when I was younger, and taught to stay well away from the area he lived in.

And yes, my kids never had the latest phones, a basic phone that does what's needed. Nowt fancy for the local yobs to get their hands on


Basically, it's a parent's choice whether to give their child a mobile for their own protection. I chose to give mine one because of their own circumstances. It's really nothing to do with you or me whether this woman let her child get a mobile. It's nothing to do with the original complaint.

[Lounge Lizard]

"Paedophiles tend to watch children, before attacking them."- maybe, but when I was a youngster in the 1960s it was normal for adults to watch children playing, there being no suggestion that any of them were paedophiles. Remember
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHUQuD7ZzYg&feature=fvst" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ? "It is the evening of the day, I sit and watch the children play ..." etc. Now though, thanks largely to the Daily peado-on-every-street-corner Mail adults daren't even glance at a child which makes youngsters more isolated and easier pray for those few paedophiles out there. Very sad.

" I had heard of 1 local ped when I was younger, and taught to stay well away from the area he lived in. " - That's right, before everyone went everywhere by car and pre-Thatcher when there was something called society everyone knew anyone who was a bit suspicious and so was cautious, but now few people even speak to or know their next door neighbours.

[mazza111]

Yes and a definite lack of community spirit. I've broken up fights between kids and gangs of kids out here, while other neighbours are watching from their windows, either too scared to break it up or just couldn't give a damn. Back in the day (can't believe i just said that) everyone looked out for each others kids. The community was closer knit and a safer place to be.