A Boy and His Phone
“Is that your phone?” I asked her.
“No, it’s Elliot’s,” she answered.
I was walking my neighborhood with my three kids and a neighbor boy. It was a beautiful fall day. We had stopped to play at a big willow tree with a hill they could roll down and she had scooted by on her roller skates. She was a good kid. Seven years old. My kids had played with her before.
She had a big black smartphone in her hand.
“Do you have a phone?”
“No.”
I was relieved. I didn’t like the idea of her having a phone while playing with my kids.
“Why do you have Elliot’s phone?”
“I’m giving it back to him. He forgot it while we were playing.”
(He forgot it. Strike one against giving a kid smartphone.)
“How old is Elliot?”
“Seven,” she said.
Seven. I was dumbfounded. It looked like a nice new smartphone. Not one of those kids tablets or kids devices that has limited capability. This was a real smartphone.
“Seven? Are you sure it’s not Elliot’s parents’ phone?”
I knew I was stretching a little but I thought maybe Elliot’s parents had let him borrow their phone, or a family phone, to call home if he needed anything. Something like that. My theory didn’t make sense, but then again, it also didn’t make sense to me that a seven year old had his own smartphone. I didn’t realize kids were starting that young.
“No, it’s Elliot’s,” she said. “It’s his phone.” She was matter of fact. It wasn’t crazy to her.
I was still having a hard time believing her. Not that I thought she was lying. I just thought maybe she didn’t know the full story.
I asked her to show me the lock screen, to see what came up. I needed proof.
Sure enough, it was a selfie (of course) of a young boy, he looked seven to me, doing a silly sticking-out-your-tongue face.
I thanked her. She was right. It was Elliot’s phone. She skated off to give Elliot his phone back.
I could have just taken her word for it but I wanted to get my story straight. Not for this piece. I wasn’t planning on writing about it until now. But I wanted to confirm that I actually was looking at the smartphone of a seven year old. Just for my own understanding of what’s going on right now with technology.
How young is too young?
The truth is, I don’t think anyone really knows what’s going on right now with technology. We’re now giving seven year olds smartphones? Their own smartphones? Who authorized this? Who thought this was a good idea? What kind of access to the Internet do they have? Social media?
I know every parent has the right to make their own choices about parenting. But it makes me wonder about a lot of things.
I have never met Elliot. He’s probably a good kid. But I feel bad for him. He has been turned into a guinea pig.
Everything’s an experiment. And I guess we’re all fine with that. And just one of the experiments is this:
What would happen to children’s mental, physical, social, psychological well-being if we gave them their own smartphone at a very young age?
I can just see the scientists sitting around now, salivating at the thought of studying these former children turned lab rats.
My question is simple regarding children and smartphones:
How young is too young?