When we talked about cell phone safety with kids I had a lot of comments offering opinions and feedback. It was interesting to me how many of the suggestions centered around time useage limits and age limits. I watched for this information during the webinar I attend that shared the research AT&T had done on mobile safety and parent concerns.
There were some very interesting tidbits that really stood out to me:
One is that 10% of students ages 8-11 already had smartphones. Even if a child needs a phone to check in with a parent after sports or club activities, it seems very early for unsupervised internet-surfing capabilities.
The other startling statistic is that while 90% of the students surveyed (500 kids ages 8-15) said they thought it was OK for parents to set rules about cell phones, only about 65% of them said they had any rules for cell phone useage at all. This says to me that parents are not communicating their rules as clearly as they might think they are.
There were also some very scary things to me that stood out in the survey:
1. More than HALF the children said they had been in the car with someone engaged in texting and driving behavior.
2. Almost half said they had friends who received sexual content via cell phones. ALMOST HALF.
AT&T has some put together a great resource for parents who are concerned about mobile safety for their kids which includes great videos that might be a good conversation starter. Because 40% of the kids surveyed said they cannot remember their parents talking to them about cell phone rules at all.
Which means even if we think we are talking to our kids about cell phones and the safety rules associated with them, there may be a disconnected between what we think we are saying, and what kids are hearing.
What do you talk to your kids about in terms of safety and personal responsibility? When will you add cell phone safety into the mix?