IPhone for an 11 year old (without service)?

[IdentityCrisisMama]

My 11 year old would like a tablet or an "IPad Touch" type electronic for the holidays. We are fortunate to have both as hand-me-downs to our family. We have resisted giving her any electronic that belongs to just her but I think she is ready and would be responsible. I'm leaning towards giving her my old IPhone 3. For one, she listens to books on tape and music when she travels and I also know how to use this device since it was my old phone. 

So my questions are: 

• Is and IPhone 3 (without service) a "good", useful gadget for an 11 year old? 
• Does it function without service to the point where she can check email at home and do some basic games and etc.? 
• Do you think giving her an Apple product will incline her to want to purchase a lot of extras like music and apps? 
• Do you think she will be able to figure out how to get music and books on and off her gadget? 

Our other option is a tablet that her uncle passed down to us. I, personally, find tablets to be fairly useless but maybe they are good fit for a child? I like that she won't be inclined to take it places because it is less likely to be lost...but then it seems less useful for road trips and other places where I may like DC to have the option for listening to a book on tape.  I also like the idea of her having a device she can dial 911 on, which I think is possible on the IPhone even without service. 

I'd love to hear your opinions on this and any other ideas you have as well as what your experiences have been about giving older children/early teens these types of gadgets. 

Thanks so much! 

[TCMoulton]

A deactivated iPhone is exactly the same as an iPod touch with the exception that she will be able to dial 911 in an emergency on the iPhone.

My daughters love their iPod touches and have used them for pretty much everything you have said you want your daughter to be able to do.

As far as the tablet it should also work very much like an iPhone including listening to music and audio books but is bulkier to tote around.

[IdentityCrisisMama]

TCM, have your kids become Apple "junkies": obsessed with buying apps and songs and etc.? Are they able to operate Itunes? (Even I can't figure that out) 

[whatsnextmom]

PP is right, a deactivated iphone is just an itouch. Both my 15 and 12-year-old have apple gadgets. Neither gadget is connected to a credit card (which you can do even though they don't make it easy.) Anything they buy is with gift card credit. They tend to stick to free apps with only a handful of purchased ones.  DS has never downloaded music. DD has downloaded a few albums. Not a big deal.

It's all in the personality. If your child is the sort that obsesses, asks for things regularly, maybe they'd have trouble with the iphone. If your kids aren't into stuff, an ipod isn't going to change that. If you are worried, just make sure there is no credit or gift card attached to it.

Oh, and I believe my DH's deactivated iphone 3 can still use wifi like an ipod... just no 3G.

[TCMoulton]

They know how to purchase but since I haven't given them my itunes password they cannot download anything without my permission. Honestly they love them but aren't obsessed. They tend to use them most in the car, waiting somewhere (sister's gymnastics class) and to listen to music when they feel like dancing. A wonderful distraction at times for sure!

[skycheattraffic]

As long as you disable in app purchases and keep a password on iTunes then she won't be able to spend money but she could get free apps and books. She could get a gift card or a specific app on her birthday say. My 12 year old niece loves her iPod touch and takes good care of it. You can set parental controls too I'm pretty sure.

[katsangel]

Originally Posted by IdentityCrisisMama 

My 11 year old would like a tablet or an "IPad Touch" type electronic for the holidays. We are fortunate to have both as hand-me-downs to our family. We have resisted giving her any electronic that belongs to just her but I think she is ready and would be responsible. I'm leaning towards giving her my old IPhone 3. For one, she listens to books on tape and music when she travels and I also know how to use this device since it was my old phone. 

So my questions are: 

• Is and IPhone 3 (without service) a "good", useful gadget for an 11 year old? 
• Does it function without service to the point where she can check email at home and do some basic games and etc.? 
• Do you think giving her an Apple product will incline her to want to purchase a lot of extras like music and apps? 
• Do you think she will be able to figure out how to get music and books on and off her gadget? 

Our other option is a tablet that her uncle passed down to us. I, personally, find tablets to be fairly useless but maybe they are good fit for a child? I like that she won't be inclined to take it places because it is less likely to be lost...but then it seems less useful for road trips and other places where I may like DC to have the option for listening to a book on tape.  I also like the idea of her having a device she can dial 911 on, which I think is possible on the IPhone even without service. 

I'd love to hear your opinions on this and any other ideas you have as well as what your experiences have been about giving older children/early teens these types of gadgets. 

Thanks so much! 

my daughter has had a iPhone for a year now she is thirteen and I battled the phone thing for a long time . But she started with a plain phone at 10 I believe and let me tell you it has been my life line to her , and I have taught her to be responsible with it and I definitely check all she does she knows nothing's private in our house and it really help keeping the lines of communication open good luck

[mkksmom]

My 8 year-old wanted an iPod touch, and we have a love/hate relationship with it. I made her use her own money for it. My dd is also not allowed to download anything without my help. But she is constantly asking for new aps. Some are free, but then there are ads that pop up. I have basically used it as a teaching tool to show her that the whole point of free aps is to sell you something. What I do like is that she uses it to Facetime her friends and chat with them, so when they can't play, she can still kind of hang out. I am also using it to teach her that you do not respond to every text/Facetime call. If you are doing homework, for example, you ignore it until you are finished. This is prep for not texting while driving. I figure that right now, my daughter is very open and honest and tells me what she is doing with it, so now is a good time to establich that we can talk about these things. There wa a situation with a group of friends as well that we used as a teachable moment. The girls were doing a group chat, and my dd was not involved. But people were adding friends to the chat, so it ended up that they were talking to people they didn't know and the discussion turned a bit bratty. Mom found out, and her girls aren't allowed to group chat anymore. I explained that you never know if one of the new "friends" on the chat is actually a grown-up tricky person trying to meet little kids. So you have to make sure it isn't something she is doing herself. My dd also reads the reviews of some games so that could be whatever people write-good or bad and so I asked her not to read those.

Like I said, we have a love/hate relationship with it. I feel like if I talk her through it early, she'll be more prepared later. My dd is also extremely cautious. She's also forgetful, so she has to earn new aps by remembering to bring home her homework.

[mumm]

I like that my 12 year old has his own phone.  He has his freedom but I can still contact him.  He stays in touch with friends (next door and across the country).  He listens to music from the early 80's (ugh!) and plays stupid little addicting games.  He takes care of it.  He keeps track of his data usage so he doesn't go over his allotment.  He keeps track of how much money he spends on itunes and pays me when he makes purchases.  (he has a babysitting job where he earns a small amount of money)

I don't like the texts coming in at 11pm from friends in different time zones.  I don't like that he poops playing games rather than reading!

[beanma]

We have the old iPhone as iPod dealio right now. Our kids are not gadget kids, though. They do like them, but we gave them to them when we upgraded. They can play Angry Birds and take photos. They haven't done much with listening to music or audio books. Not sure why, but maybe we just haven't shown them. They do love some audio books. They don't text at all. They use my iPhone 4 to text Daddy only. It has never occurred to them that they could text their friends. We are giving them some refurb iPod touches this year, though, and they will be able to iMessage their friends. I know one of their friends is also getting one so they might get into that. They don't have the iTunes password.

[AAK]

My 12 yr old saved up and bought her own ipod 2 years ago (a month prior to turning 11).  She loves it and has taken very good care of it.  She does have our itunes password, but hasn't ever abused it.  She knows that I monitor what has been purchased and she clears everything with me first.  She also checks before using her gift cards.  She seems to know that having these toys come with responsibility as well.  That said, she is pretty devoted to the apple product line (we have had great luck/service/etc with them) however she hasn't ever made rash purchases.  She sticks with mostly free apps and some music.  It is nice to be able to buy one song vs an entire album.  We also like that we can have several products under the same account and we can all share music/downloads.  Additionally, she has a tracfone.  We are getting her one with a qwerty keyboard for Christmas.  I buy a small amount of minutes for her--deal is that she has no reason to not be able to contact me.  She buys additional minutes.  Between the two of us, we spend a total of maybe $60/year for her phone use.  DH and I also use a tracfone vs a contract style plan.  Our 10 year old recently bought her sister's old ipod from her and the older one bought a refurbished 4th gen.  She hasn't become a "junkie" either.  She uses it when we have to just "wait around" or for longer car rides.  They both love to listen to music on them.

Amy 

[IdentityCrisisMama]

Thanks, everyone! We've decided on the Iphone 3 as the gift rather than the tablet. I am not the gadget person in this house so for 11 years I have not been able to support DC with any of her gadgets. I'm looking forward to at least knowing how to turn this on and help her navigate some of the buttons and etc. Technology always has a steep learning curve for me. Learning Itunes will be a pain but I think I'm hooked on Apple phones myself so maybe it's high time I leaned...or maybe DC can teach me.