Land of the free. As long as the child isn't using it during class time there is no reason not to have one. It's a good teaching moment about freedom having responsibilities.

Your kids are clearly on their way to being degenerates, Lol.

All of mine have a phone, most are hand me downs from me and the wife's old phones. Only the three oldest have cell service. It is nice to have the tracking, but also, just as important, they can call us ANYTIME if a situation makes them uncomfortable or they need something. I trust my kids more than I do most other people. I also think it is vitally important to have restrictions on what a kid can see or do on their phone and what apps they are allowed to have.

I'm struggling with the timing of giving my 10-year old one. He lives in a different town than me, and it'd be nice to FaceTime him directly versus using his mother's.

The downside for me is that it feels like an 'innocence lost' scenario when a kid gets a phone; I want to extend those fleeting moments of having that magical little boy for what little time his childhood has remaining.

First grade seems way to young to me, however I HATE HATE HATE phones and technology.

He can face time via iPad and wifi, fyi

Lol, right!!

Daughters iPads are in lock down and we check them all the time

Cell phones will be the downfall of this country, as an educator I have seen it first hand. It's sad.

My daughter has had one since she was 12 because her mom and I divorced and I needed to be able to talk to her. She’s 16 now and we’ve had zero issues with her.

I don’t know but my son is in 5th grade and he isn’t getting a cell phone anytime soon.

We got both our kids phones when they got into 7th grade so that they could call us if their football and band schedules changed so we picked them up at the right time.

It is not hard to monitor who they talk to, what they look at, or anything else nowadays with the apps that are out there for parents to use. Ours knew full well they were going to be checked on here and there and if they screwed the pooch they'd loose their phone for a good while.

1st grade or even elementary school is way too young IMHO.

your grandparents probley thought the same thing whin you drove your car/truck ta school @ age 16.

One thing that kind of ticked me off last school year was that my then oldest was in 6th grade, first year at the Jr. High and they would tell the kids to take pictures of the board for their homework. They expected that every kid had a phone and to drop off items they had a sign asking you to text them.

I don't blame you getting mad. I would say that's a young, not super-intelligent teacher. Some young "adults" can't think outside the box to save their lives. I know this is veering off into the weeds, but I was in a community band in San Antonio. The "kids" that were on the board would just say, regarding a concert, "Just share the promotional flyer on Facebook with your friends", then complain when very few people would attend the concert. The venue was literally across the street from a very large retirement/assisted living facility. 'Never dawned on them to PRINT a few flyers and drop them off at the facility's front desk, or even take the time to ask for the Activities Director and personally invite the folks. A ton of social skills are being lost with the technology and social media. But, as I warned you, I digress.

We have set a pretty hard rule that they aren’t allowed any social media until they are 18.