Little Metal Boxes of unlimited freedom. At the touch of a button we have all the information in the world at our fingertips. I’m talking about the thing every kid needs, a cellphone. With the advancement in technology we no longer want to play outside or with a pick board game. We only want to spend time on an iPad or any other device. When this decision finally comes into play  for our parents they should carefully think it through. Most of our parents asked themselves is my kid old enough, or is this the right time. They unitentionally miss the most important question. Are we mentally mature enough to handle the responsibility of owning a phone? Now this isn’t a guess and see if they make the right decision, there is some science behind when the right time is.

Quoting Olivia Solon from independent wrote on june sixth 2016 says “Devices if used in a particular ways, could be changing children’s brains for the worst - potentially affecting their attention, motor control, language skills, and eyesight, especially in under fives for whom so much brain development is taking place”. Our frontal cortex is not fully developed till we are twenty five, yet we give kids technology like it’s something we need to survive. Our decisions are rash and very irrational. We live off of impulsive decisions. So why do we give children a free pass to everything in the world at the click of a button.  I’ve noticed in my own life my little sister is almost as tech savy as I am. While i’m fifteen and have taken classes on technology my sister is only six and just starting school. She can maneuver an ipad with ease while my parents can barely figure out how to turn of the ringer. With technology advancing parents start to use it as a way to entertain us while shopping, long car rides, or just to keep them from bugging them.  58% of children under the age of two have used some kind of device. Should we be worried or should we just ignore the ugly side because the pretty side has a whole lot of advantages.
 Quoting Jessamyn from wired who wrote on june sixteenth 2011“ There are mobile apps that allow their child to pull up online classes in no time flat. Add in apps for dictionaries and calculators, flashcards, learning games, reading apps like kindle and nook, plus the ability to surf the web, and they really do have a helpful homework tool. It’s always connected, available, and pocket portable, unlike the family computer. With almost every one of us having one parents can always be sure they are able to reach us. Parents like to know where we are at all times. With the world plagued by so many evil people it’s hard to let a us have any amount of freedom when parents don’t know who we’re with or what we’re doing. Luckily big companies like apple, samsung, or lg thought about that. With a simple click of a button most parents can track our phone. This reduces the number of unanswered calls or texts. Parents number one priority is our safety. At some point or another we must grow up. Parents can do things throughout our lives to prepare us to be as mentally mature and responsible as we can be. Things like getting a pet or having to do chores prepare us for the real world, but a phone can teach us somewhat the same way a pet can. It teaches us that we can’t lose it or forget to charge it. We have to be careful not to drop on the ground or into water. Does our pretty side of getting us a phone out way the ugly side though.

  With access to all the information on the web we can run into things that are inappropriate.  “Time magazine published an article in March of 2009 that recent studies showed that one in every five teenage has sent a nude via cellphone and over a third of teens have received one” according to Karen Plumley a freelance writer from parentingnh wrote this in september of 2011. Now that being six years ago those numbers have increased drastically. While there is ways to protect us from this like child locks somehow we still find away around this. Now while they can find inappropriate things bad people can also find them. With all the mental illness out there the world has become a scary place. With just a click of a button psychopaths can find out all about anyone they want to, and with us not knowing we shouldn’t post things like our first name, address, or schedule it makes it even easier for people to find them. Schools giving us technology is a good thing, but it has it’s downside. Temptation to look only for a few seconds. At times school can drag on. No one wants to sit through that, so we try to be sneaky and take just a peek at our phone. Sometimes when our phone buzzes the need to know who texted us or snapchatted us is just too strong. It can be more of a distraction than a helpful tool at times. All of these are good things to look at when deciding whether or not to get a us a phone, but it all really depends on the us.

This decision depends solely on us. “I tell parents that it’s not so much about a particular age as it is about a kid’s social awareness and understanding of what the technology means”. And this is according to Dr. Jerry Bubrick a clinical psychologist and anxiety expert at the child mind institute. If we are mentally ready we should be doing things like starting to manage money, own up to our mistakes, and be responsible in school. All of us grow up at different paces. One of us might be ten and as mature as a seventeen year old. In my experience in my own household me and my twelve year old sister were much more mature at the ages of six and eleven than my youngest sisters who are six and eleven are now, but that is not always the case my cousins family the second oldest of four is the most mature and the other three are very childish. If we act immature, never listen, make rash decisions then we are definitely not ready. Think of it this way  can someone trust us with the responsibility of watching another child. If they don’t then is trusting us with a smartphone really the best decision? If we are starting to act mature then a phone is a good idea.

 So it’s not all about the science behind it or the pros and cons, but just our maturity level.

Hopefully they won’t just give in to the begging just because they want it to stop, and instead carefully think through the decision. Make sure to set rules and punishment if the rules are not followed. The pressure is real and we live through it everyday with minimal damage. It isn’t about age but more so about the maturity of the one who will receive the phone. Just because everyone of our friends has one does not mean we have to. Your parents aren’t your friends parents they are yours and it’s their decision to make. It never is just about age: the pros, the cons, but in reality it is all about when they feel like we are ready and that could be age twelve or age eighteen.  So is age really anything but a number?