Mobile phone for a ten year old.

[robemcdonald]

My ten year old daughter is basically the last person in her class not to have a mobile phone.

We can park the rights and wrongs of children that young having a phone as I know what I think.

Can anyone advise a good choice of phone / provider / contract?

I want to pay a flat monthly fee and be able to limit what she can access online and not spend any money on games etc.

I get my phone from work so have no clue how much I should pay and from whom.

Any help would be gratefully received.

Ta

Ps. Advising me a ten year old shouldn’t have a phone does not constitute help.

[hellorent]

Sky/Smarty mobile allows the things you want

[robemcdonald]

hellorent said:

Sky mobile allows the things you want

Nice. I have sky tv and broadband, so it could be nice and easy to set up?

[hellorent]

Yeah i'm with sky as well its a doddle to sort.

[sociopath]

Buy a cheap one so you won't be too annoyed when it gets confiscated for being used in class.

[spanner10]

Giff gaff cheap monthly deal but not sure about controls on it . Unlimited calls and texts plus some data from about £10 p m. Cheap phone a good idea as it will be dropped/lost/stolen

[megaphone]

Check with friends and family, I expect someone has an old iPhone or similar they no longer want, then get a cheapy Giff Gaff sim.

[TimmyMallett]

It's the parents that are incapable of saying No' to their child and buy the first that I deplore, and then the rest just crumble after them. Makes everyone else life that much harder.

I'm holding out to Secondary for my daughter, some parents are still holding out which makes it easier not to have her ostracised with her friends all watching rubbish on phones. Our plan is to let her choose from a second hand shop once she has saved 50% of the cost of it with errands and chores, so she at least looks after it given the effort she needs to put in.

[hyphen]

Samsung have a "Samsung Kids" option on there phones. Once enabled it makes the phone more child friendly and requires a password to exit. So perhaps have a look at that.

https://www.samsung.com/uk/apps/samsung-kids/

Or anything that offers parental controls.

[Captain Answer]

Both my sons have them (9 & 10), been a god send through lockdown they have been in touch with all their friends through out via WhatsApp, arranging quiz's, calls, x-box parties, even helping each other with school work etc etc

We got them each refurbished Pixel phones (gen 2 and gen 3) for about £100 each, as they are a Google phone they run pure android OS and Google keep the well updated version wise (think those 2 stopped at version 10, current version is 11 but not much of a big difference). I put them both onto Google Family which restricts everything under the sun from screen time a day, bedtimes, what they can access, needing permission to install etc

Then I got them two Monthly sims through Virgin who I was already with, think its about £6/8 a month, they are capped too so they can't spend more than £5 over their contract, not that either of them have ever gone over or prob would even know how at their age

[robemcdonald]

thanks for the replies.

My initial thought was to go down the iphone route, but reading the replies Samsung or google may be a better bet.

Thanks

[tog]

robemcdonald said:

My initial thought was to go down the iphone route, but reading the replies Samsung or google may be a better bet.

Go with what you know - my kids aren't old enough for phones yet, but my parents and in-laws are, and when they ask for help with their Android phones I don't have a clue where to find anything. I imagine it's the same if you are used to Android and suddenly have to support an iPhone.

[CustardOnChips]

If their friends have iPhones. That is what they will want. Makes messaging and facetime easier. Also find a friend and setting up screen time, filters etc is dead easy.

My daughter had an original SE at that age. Its small enough to fit in small pockets and relatively cheap. Shes 12 and now has an XR.

My son is 10 and has my old Galaxy S9. He couldn't care less what phone he has. And only really uses it when he goes out with his mates.

[Captain Answer]

tog said:

robemcdonald said:

My initial thought was to go down the iphone route, but reading the replies Samsung or google may be a better bet.

Go with what you know - my kids aren't old enough for phones yet, but my parents and in-laws are, and when they ask for help with their Android phones I don't have a clue where to find anything. I imagine it's the same if you are used to Android and suddenly have to support an iPhone.

This is why I put my 2 boys onto Pixels, I already had the same phone in a higher version for personal use and an older 1st gen for my work phone and I'd seen what Google Family could do and it was really easy to set it all up

Technically my work assigned phone is an iPhone but its in the bottom of my work bag switched off, I hate the thing and hate anything out on the OS is just so Alien to me from years on Android

All my kids friends use whatsapp, so they all talk through that so they arent limited by not being on iPhone in their case

[stevoknevo]

Captain Answer said:

We got them each refurbished Pixel phones (gen 2 and gen 3) for about £100 each, as they are a Google phone they run pure android OS and Google keep the well updated version wise (think those 2 stopped at version 10, current version is 11 but not much of a big difference)

Pixels 2/3/4 & 5 are all on Android 11 however the 2 is now out of support since December, the 3 will get Android 12 in September-ish, then go out of support in December like the OG & 2 has done (I got my mum an OG xl last Christmas and its stuck on 10, runs flawlessly, as does my 2xl that's now limited to 11)

OP have a look on AV Forums as Pixels pop up on there fairly often for not a lot - get a Pixel 3 or 3a, non xl version, if possible as it's more kid hands friendly. Arguably still one of the best phone cameras available.

[sutoka]

At 10 I'd probably get a new 3310 which you can pick up for about £30-£40. I had mobile at 10 as did my friends na we used to get up to to right caper.

Smartphone I would say 14 depending on how mature you think your kid is. I know when I was 14 some my peers were going to the pub for a night out and a pull. Others liked gaming, wrestling and kicking football about it the park.

[cobra kid]

On the rights and wrongs, I think it's a good thing to get them used to them early and get rid of a lot of the novelty factor. Our two had them (cheap ones) for the last year of small school before going to the big one.

[hyphen]

sutoka said:

At 10 I'd probably get a new 3310 which you can pick up for about £30-£40. I had mobile at 10 as did my friends na we used to get up to to right caper.

Smartphone I would say 14 depending on how mature you think your kid is. I know when I was 14 some my peers were going to the pub for a night out and a pull. Others liked gaming, wrestling and kicking football about it the park.

I would say against this, as I would want the child to have the option to receive/make video calls with the parent, or their little mates.

[Captain Answer]

stevoknevo said:

Captain Answer said:

We got them each refurbished Pixel phones (gen 2 and gen 3) for about £100 each, as they are a Google phone they run pure android OS and Google keep the well updated version wise (think those 2 stopped at version 10, current version is 11 but not much of a big difference)

Pixels 2/3/4 & 5 are all on Android 11 however the 2 is now out of support since December, the 3 will get Android 12 in September-ish, then go out of support in December like the OG & 2 has done (I got my mum an OG xl last Christmas and its stuck on 10, runs flawlessly, as does my 2xl that's now limited to 11)

OP have a look on AV Forums as Pixels pop up on there fairly often for not a lot - get a Pixel 3 or 3a, non xl version, if possible as it's more kid hands friendly. Arguably still one of the best phone cameras available.

Just checked and both boys are on 11, good to know. They are both the non-xl version as figured they would fit their hands better. My 4 isn't the XL version, I have the XL gen 1 and decided to go a little smaller

The camera is great on them all as you say and the battery life is very good - possibly one of the best of any brand I've had

[robemcdonald]

So I ordered a Samsung galaxy A12 64gb from sky.

I chose the Samsung as a previous poster mentioned a child mode (or similar)

It’s costing £6 / month with unlimited calls, texts and streaming of sky apps. Only 100mb of data, but she will have to do all the internet stuff at home (which suits me as I can put filters on the home connection)

Not sure if it’s a good deal or phone, but we are happy with £6 / month.