The other day we talked a little bit about the pros of letting kids have a smartphone. We can all agree that there is definitely a debate as to whether or not you should let your child have a smartphone. We already talked about the pros, but you probably would want to be informed about the cons of that decision. Here are just a couple of reasons on why not to let your child have a smartphone.
Here are some cons of letting your child have a smartphone:
- Harmful Apps
There are lots of innocent apps on the app store, but there are also many harmful apps that your children could download.
- Glitchy
All phones could be glitchy at some point, but smartphones are often times more glitchy and more likely to be glitchy than the standard cell phone.
- Addictive
Smartphones can be addictive, especially to kids that have nothing else to do. So when they actually do have something to do, they are more likely to complain more because they could be playing on their phone instead. Plus, kids should be active for at least one hour a day so if they’re always looking at their phones, they often times won’t want to be active at all.
- More Than They Need
Your kids don’t need a phone in general, but it’s nice knowing that if they need to they can get in touch with you, but they don’t need a smartphone for that. They can call and text you on a standard phone just as well.
- Easy to Break
This may not have been proven by anybody, but I know that when I used to have a standard phone, it didn’t break nearly as easy as my smartphone has. I have went through about four smartphones in the past five years. The first two and the last one broke because I dropped it one time then the whole thing shattered. When I dropped my standard phone, it stayed exactly the same. Imagine with kids! They might be responsible kids, but accidents do happen.
- Expensive
These devices are expensive! In both initial investment and monthly maintenance. They cost hundreds of dollars when you first buy them, but then you have to pay for them every month to go on top of that, which really adds up!
So what do you think? Is it worth it?
