should a 13 year old be allowed to have a cell phone?

Question

i'm not the parent. my little sister came to me and asked me if i would buy her one because my mom said no, that she didn;t need one. my sister is involved with alot of after school stuff and on weekends when she is not being a cheerleader she has her deabte meetings. i know whse will be responsible but if i buy her one, we need a good argument to tell mom. and of course teh phone will be pre-paid, i'm a big sister not an ATM.

Answer 1

Yes, she needs one for more than one reason. The main reason I say yes is because the world is crazy place. There was a young lady on the local news whose life was saved because she had been kidnapped and was able to call the police and give them a description of where she was. Besides with all the activities that she is involved in there should be a way to contact her in case of any emergency or if there is a delay or practice let's out early. She can call you or your mom to let someone know what is going on. A prepaid plan would be excellent because it prevents her from running up the bill. I'd like to suggest Cingular's prepaid plan because they offer rollover minutes and free nights and weekends, so that way not only will she have a phone but on weekends she can talk until her little heart is content. The money can be set up to come out monthly on whatever day you choose and if by chance she runs out of minutes before replenish time you can still purchase a card to add a few minutes until the minutes are replaced. I know this because 2 of my girls had this plan before we put them on our family plan. This plan taught them responsibility and now they have a regular plan and they are responsible to pay $25 per month (both have part time jobs) to keep this privilege and luxury. Lastly, I'd like to say that you seem like a great big sister, your sister is lucky. Keep up the good work.

Answer 2

You just stated the argument FOR having a cell at 13 yrs old. Use that with your mom. Now, if you get her one, you need to put an absolute LIMIT on it each month. Start her out with the bare minimum on a prepaid phone. If she still has minutes left at the end of the month, then that's a pretty good indication that she's being responsible and ONLY using it for emergencies, a ride home, etc. as initially intended. You can increase the minutes after she proves her ability to be responsible if you want, but don't let her take advantage of you. If she gets and allowance, then she can buy more minutes for the phone if she runs out before the end of the month. But if the minutes are gone before the month is up, tell her SORRY!
Sounds like she's a good kid, and maybe for emergencies and rides home after her activites, she could use a cell phone.
Just be careful....She may be a good kid, but she's still a teenager.

Answer 3

If ur one of the parents that lets your 13 year old run lose at the mall or hang out in parking lots all night then get one of the phones where u program 4 phone numbers in and thats all they can call so that you dont have them running up a 500 dollar phone bill but if your kid takes the bus to and from school, and isnt aloud out of the house without adult supervision then no...

Answer 4

What on earth is the point? 13 year olds should always be having adult superision anyway - or at least always near a phone in case of an emergency. Kids should only get cell phones once they turn 16 an are going to be driving on their own - in case they have car trouble in the middle of no where and need help.
Gosh pretty soon 4 year olds are going to have cell phones! I mean really, I see 8 year olds with more high tech phones then I have at 26!

Answer 5

Of course... how else will they be able to talk to their cannabis dealers without their parents finding out?

But seriously... why would a 13 year-old NEED a cell phone?

At the end of the day, if they earn enough money to buy the phone and pay the bill, then they have the right to own one.

Answer 6

Well the younger they are the more irresponsible usually, therefore there is an upside and downside to giving them a cellphone. The upside would be that if they leave from school with a friend without telling you they will at least be a phone call away, yet if they are irresponsible they may just leave their cellphone at school as well, lol!

Answer 7

Yeah, they should be allowed to have a cell phone. Especially with your sister's schedule, you or your mother need to be able to reach her at all times. In this day and age, a cell phone is necessary to get through life. It is not like she would be talking to the entire world on it, only people who she is close to (family, I don't mean friends) can call her on that number.

Answer 8

if i were u i would let her have 1 because parents they get extra sneaky when u r a teen.they always listen 2 u on the phone.then comes the next day they tellin all yo business!so they should at least respect yo privacy.they could get u a cell and if u stop buggin them,they'll stop buggin u.but i would make her turn off her phone when it's 9:00.(if she's still talkin,then take the phone and give it 2 her the next day.she's gona have to do some responsibilities if she want her phone bill paid.

Answer 9

well it matters on her.... can u trust her? well this may help i got a cell phone when i was 9 i know seems bad actually i BEGGed lol and i finally got it!!! but then i broke it.... but now at 11 im more trustworthy and my dad decided to give it another chance so he gave me another phone only this time is broke again but that was cuz my mom fell asleep and let my 3 yr old bro play wit it lol and they got me a new cool cell phone but thats not even the point.... at 13 she prolly needs it more cuz like she'll be doing more on her own and will need a cell phone incase anything goes wrong so yes i think it should be fine okk!!! ^_^ OKEY DOKIE!!!! ^_^

Answer 10

Yes, definitely. A cell phone is great for safty reasons. If they have any problems on their way home from school,going to a friend's house,etc, they can call home, or 911. There are a lot of weird people out there these days.