Why do parents pay for their teens to have cell phones?

Question

This is just something I've been wondering. I've seen excuses such as:
1-staying after school
2-emergency
3-call from a friends' house

It wasn't too long ago that I was in high school. Our high school had pay phones as well as a phone you could call your parents from during school hours. If there was an emergency, my parents knew right away because they knew where I was. If I was at a friends' house, I had to call from their phone if I wanted to stay later. If they didn't have a phone, I rode my bike to ask my parents. Are there any other reasons teens have cell phones?

Answer 1

you know what my sister bought a cell phone for my 12 yr old nephew and now my children want one but supposablly her is for emergencies take a look at emergencies she's had
1. Did you take your homework?
2. Are you staying after school.
3. Did I sign your journal.
4. Is your teacher buisy right now so I can call her?
5. Wait for your Daddy after school.
6. Friends using it to call there parents.

This is stupid I see your point and I dont know why she got it probablly cus my nephew kept complaining that his friend had one but that is dumb im like you we had payphones at school and in junior high we had the office phone

Answer 2

2

Answer 3

Yes. The issue with some people is, they only think of reasons that THEY can think of, and don't think there are any actually good reasons for someone to own a cellphone.

I have had a cell phone since I was eleven years old. Too young? Yes, I actually do agree. But, my father had a very good reason for getting me one.

Where I live, it's cheaper to get cellphone service, rather than regular phone service. My father is a cheap person, and therefore, does not own a house phone. He had a free cellphone that he got from work. The issue was, whenever my brother and I would go to his house, and he had to leave (he takes my brother golfing a lot), there would be no telephone. We also do not live very close to other people (about a two minutes walk to the nearest house), so if there was an emergency (ie someone breaking in, fire, etc), I would probably die (or something like that). The solution? Buy me a cellphone. It's cheaper (for me) and easier than a house phone.

Answer 4

One of the reasons is that nowadays it costs money for schools to maintain pay phones, and many schools no longer have them. Another reason is because schools no longer allow personal phone calls on school phones (it's that cost thing again). In my daughter's highschool there was almost 3,000 students ONE pay phone and the only reason a student could use the office phone was if it was an emergency and then a school offical/staff memberwould make the call not the student. As a working mom it was nice to know where my daughter was, if she had to stay after school for a reason I wasn't coming home to an empty house wondering where she was, if there was an accident etc. It also kept her in touch with me, if I had to work late, or if I was stopping off on the way home from work. I will however add that since we first got our cells SHE has paid for her half of the bills.

Answer 5

I have three kids - the older two are 10 and 12 and they both have cell phones. There is no pay phone at school, the office phone is only available during school hours - so if they need to call me at the end of the school day to let me know they're staying after school to finish an assignment or they want to play basketball with their friends, they can't. My husband and I both have cell phones and we weren't using all of our minutes each month. This way, it doesn't cost very much more for that added peace of mind of knowing they can reach us if they need to. And even though their friends all have cell phones too, we haven't had any problems with them going over their allotted minutes for the month.

I don't get what the big deal is.

Answer 6

My mom got me a cell phone when I was 14. She works an hour away from home, and I end up being home for 2 hours alone after school. We got rid of our home phone, everyone calls us on our cells. It costs less as well. When my mom and I go shopping, we normally split up. Its quick an easy way to contact each other if need be. We have a family plan (using cingular) which my entire family (aunts uncles cousins grandparents, you get the idea) are on. Free mobile to mobile. My family talks like CRAZY so it's great. Me and my friends used to hang out at our houses when we were younger (like 12 yrs old) but now we hang out down town, which is a good 20 mins drive from home, too long to bike. Cell phone are very convenient. My mom loves my having my own cell phone, and so do I =)

Answer 7

If they break down in the middle of nowhere they can probably call and tell us about where they are so we can come and help them.

To know where they are at all times,
so they dont have an excuse not to call when they are out somewhere
To let us know if they would be later coming home for some reason

So we can call them if we need something or incase something happens to another family member and we need them at the hospital

There are plenty of good reasons to have a cell phone especially since there is so much that could happen to your child, there are a lot of bad people out there so its better to be safe than sorry.

There are plenty of downsides to a cell phone but it could also save your childs life

I wouldnt do it to please my child, I would do it for these reasons, and if they got a cellphone I would most definitely make them get a job and atleast pay half if not all of their phone bill


I agree with some on here that say that teens will abuse the phone privelages but like I said this phone can save their lives, depending on the situation.


I dont understand why some of you are saying that parents get this to spoil their children, that may be the case for some parents. But think about it if they were being kidnapped or anything they could call the police, most usually cell phone's can be a good thing. because hello think about it, they might be able to call the police or get a hold of someone if they are being raped kidnapped etc. CELL PHONES CAN BE TRACKED BY THE POLICE...

Answer 8

ive had a cell phone since i was like 9ish (im 13 now) i have it cause i move around a lot and sometimes we dont bother getting a home phone if we r only ganna b at a place 4 a few moths and i spend a lot of my weekends in airports and sometimes its hard 2 use a payphone in the airport also sometimes my parents leave me at home alone 4 like a week if they go away and if there is no home phone they cant call and c if im ok 4 that whole week so thats y i have a cell phone its kinnda a saftey thing...

Answer 9

not really sure why you are so against teens having cell phones.. if you can afford it then why not? If adults can have them then why not young adults? It is better to have a way to quickly communicate then having to go that place to talk. I have seen kids having to call 911 because of an accident. If they did not have the cell phone something a lot worse could have happened. You need to chill down it is BETTER SAFE THEN SORRY.

Answer 10

These kids are so annoying. I'm 22 but there are like 13 and 14 yo. who walks around the mall (dont work there either) and blah blah blah..very loudly..on their cell-phone, hours on end! Find a job or do some studies instead. Do they know that they can get brain cancer with all the radiation? Someone should tell them.