Miss 14 (today) wants an iPhone and I need some advice please
 

The young lady of our house turns 14 today and the top of her birthday wishlist is an iPhone.

I do not want to capitulate as I think it's excessive at this age (yes I am an old fashioned mother).

Down here; we get locked into costly phone contracts so if I do reconsider I would want to buy one outright for her and no contract. But I'm not paying out for an iPhone4.

So I'm thinking maybe a 3GS. I need educating about such things as "jailbreak" and why phones from overseas seem to have some sort of limitation about software updates etc (something about locking the phone if we try to install updates down here?).

A 3GS may still cost several hundred dollars...before I leap I need to know more and you guys know this stuff ;).

Help please....

Just say, "no." My 14, soon to be 15, year old son whines from time to time. He has an old flip phone that works just fine.

No need to jailbreak :D

Todd,

I agree to some extent; but she has been stuck with an old phone for quite a while and it needs replacing anyway.

Plus she has really lifted her game at school these past months (accelerated learning program that has been really challenging).

There's a whole lot of other family crap going down with our eldest at the moment which I can't go into; but it's taking a toll on the other two (and us). She deserves a bit of a lift and a nice surprise as there haven't been many of those of late :(.

have her write a 5 pg analysis on why she needs an iphone and what she would do if she DID get an iphone vs a dumbphone. it's not FREE, she did work for it :)

"No" is not a dirty word.
"No, because..." helps her to learn (even if she won't admit its helping now.

Get the iPhone. It's the most important accessory for kids this age. And it will spare you a lot of whinging.

Totally a personal decision. I can understand both sides of the coin on this. Many kids my son's age (14) are walking around with smart phones connected to their social networks. My son is not...yet. If he pulls honor role his freshman year in HS we will have the discussion again. Till then he lives with his 'dumb' phone with slide out keyboard.

When the time comes I will buy a used phone on Craigs list. We are Win and Linux here so no dice on iPhone...it will be android.

We got our about to turn 16 year old son an iPhone 3GS, but it was $49 with the two year contract. The problem is when you add texting (small $ per month) and internet (bigger $ per month). His old phone was broken and he had it two years.

If she can live with texting only or pay for the internet, then go for it, otherwise it's hard to justify getting a smart phone.

What he said... the phone is cheap... the monthly charges will kill you... be sure to check on that before you sign on the dotted line.

And no she doesn't need one IMHO.

Teach your daughter that there is more to the world than Facebook and texting. It will be beneficial to her long term not to have her head stuck in that stuff 24/7.

And I say that as a 25 year old, too many of my peers are glued to their smartphones.

My 7 yr old has a blackberry

It's a work issue from my wife's previous employer 2 years ago - still activated.

I start my kids early on technology. My 4 yr old is more computer literate than many teenagers I know.

I can answer all your jailbreak questions. PM me.

Lisa, don't be such a meanie and get her the iPhone, AND a 10,000 texts a month package, and colour coded to look right with her laptop. And if you don't all her fiends will laugh at her and it's just not fair.

Miss 15 here has an iPhone. It is the 3G model, her mom's hand-me-down. It really is a useful tool for her - she uses email, web, text, camera, games, music, etc as much as her parents do after all. Useful thing - using "Find My iPhone" I can see where she is, or at least where her phone is, which occasionally saves me a bit of worry - when she's taking the bus to school, or at the coast working like she is this weekend.

I suggest you hold off until fall, when the iPhone 5 comes out, and then look for any deals on a iPhone 4. I would not have gotten my daughter a new one at full $. She knows that if she loses or breaks it, there's no prompt replacement coming.

+100

+100 also

Promise her the iphone 4 when the 5 comes out. It's only a month away...

OMG... I can't believe you'd do that to your own kids! :D

Probably 2 months according to the irumors floating around the net.

Friends don't let friends do the droid.

We're already doing the "super secret" commercials for the A**le iPh*ne 5 now so it should be coming out very soon. I still like my 3GS, works great and haven't felt a need to upgrade (homie don't need no facetime).

If she's done well and is responsible reward her with a nice phone. But paraphrase it with the old "If you continue to do well, do the dishes. keep your room clean, blah blah blah..." you'll do better in the long run. You need to have that "prized possession" to take away whenever she doesn't go with the program.

Is a smartphone really that great? I would think the battery would not last very long. I have a flip phone that I use to talk to people and sometimes send them texts.

I just wait until I get home to my plugged in laptop to do all the heavy communication and school work with a nice big screen and keyboard, USB drive, etc.

I can carry my flip phone in my pocket and ride my bike or do whatever. If I fall or it falls it is robust and keeps working. I would not want to do that with an iPhone.

I see people with iPads and it is not quite a laptop, not quite a phone, so it is a big thing that tries to do everything but becomes impractical and does no one thing well. It is like a cheap imitation swiss army knife, to be replaced by a real knife and real pliars.

I haven't used my iPod in many years for similar reasons- battery life and not having it be safe in my pocket.