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Parents should reconsider Giving a Smartphone to Their Child

Todays world is very different from what it used to be a few years back; you could possibly say that we live in a new world today. Children start interacting with technology from a very young age, and we cannot blame children for that since that is what has become our lifestyle today in the twenty-one century. Children cannot be forced to not have this relationship with technology nowadays, however that doesnt mean that parents cannot control how their children use technology and how early they begin to interact with it. One of the most common technological devices that children ask to have today is a cell phone. Cell phones help families to keep in touch with each other even when being miles away from each other. !amples of the times a children would be in the need of a cellphone is when they need to stay after school for activities, such as, attending an e!tracurricular activity, as well as when they go outside with their friend during the weekends. The cell phone has become an essential tool for them, in order to keep in touch with their parents in case of an emergency or to know at what time their parents are supposed to pick them up from a certain place. "ut in this new era of technology, cell phones are no only made for people to communicate. Cell phones have stopped being #ust a tool of communication; they have become smartphones, a tool that connect people to internet and a place where you can find many of applications for different things. $t is not a surprise that when parents try to give their children a cell phone to keep in touch, they now demand to have a smartphone as they want to have access to all of those great applications that only smartphones are capable of handling and end up giving parents an e!cuse such as of the need to keep in touch with them. %owever by providing their children with this device from a very young age can damage their childrens relationships more than it can help them. "ack in the day it was a big deal to give a cell phone to a child that was in middle school. $n those days cell phones were used not for any other thing but to make phone calls or send te!t messages. &or these previously mentioned reasons, parents need to reconsider allowing their child to own a cellphone nowadays and wait for the kid to be at least si!-teen years old and then give the teenager the liberty to have his or her own smartphone as stated in 'oberts (iciliano article, )*ids and (martphones+ %ow old,-, an article in which he writes that children should not be allowed to own a smartphone until they get to the age of at least si!-teen, for reasons such as, bullying, pornography, fraud, and personal security. The maturity and responsibility level at the age of si!-teen make the teenager more conscious of using more appropriately a smartphone. .t that age they usually start driving and learning of responsibilities and what their action may cause. "efore the age of si!-teen children can give a bad use to a smartphone because their curiosity can take them to navigate to websites that are not productive to them. These e!amples are #ust some of the reasons why parents should think twice before giving a smart phone to their children.

'eferences (iciliano, '. /01234. *ids and (martphones+ %ow Old,. "logging and (ocial 5edia. 'etrieved from http+66www.blogher.com6kids-and-smartphones-how-old. 7nlocked (martphone. Cartoon. /01204. 5any Companies (upporting mployee i8hones .nd i8ads $gnore 5obile (ecurity. Online. 09 :ov. 0123. 'etrieved from http+66www.cultofmac.com62;0<336many-companies-supporting-employee-iphones-andipads-ignore-mobile-security6.

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