The narrative about smartphone use among teenagers is changing.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s been a growing push in the past few years to keep phone screens away from tweens and teens. Several school boards banned cellphones in classrooms in some provinces in 2024, while calls to follow Australia\u2019s steps in banning social media for those under the age of 16 have grown in Canada.<\/p>\n
Still, many parents can only hold off for so long on giving their child their first smartphone. And when you do, experts say the onus is on parents to set up the right guardrails on the device, especially as most phones are designed to make spending easier, and sometimes, invisible.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiving your child their first cellphone can be a really great teachable moment \u2014 an opportunity to build a money lesson naturally into your day-to-day lives,\u201d said Robin Taub, author of the book \u201cThe Wisest Investment: Teaching Your Kids to be Responsible, Independent and Money-Smart for Life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first step, she said, is to sit them down and go over various costs associated with phone ownership, and lay out who\u2019s responsible for them.<\/p>\n
There are some obvious costs \u2014 the phone itself, a phone plan, a case, and sometimes a phone protection plan.<\/p>\n
Taub said if a child is on the younger side \u2014 around 13 or 14 years old \u2014 you can start by teaching them about data overages, connecting to wireless networks and turning off data roaming when travelling to avoid a hefty bill.<\/p>\n
With older teenagers, she said parents can gradually shift the responsibility of paying the phone bill onto them.<\/p>\n
But there are many more less visible costs, such as in-app purchases or sign-ups for trials that can sneakily be added to a credit card.<\/p>\n
Rebecca Snow recalled her kids playing a popular online world-building game, Roblox, which often requires in-app purchases for new avatars or outfits for the characters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey used to ask me, \u2018Can we get Robux?’\u201d said Snow, co-founder of the Toronto chapter of Unplugged Canada, a group that advocates for smartphone-free childhoods.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey didn\u2019t realize that that\u2019s me actually spending money on Robux, buying these little digital tokens to get little outfits for their avatars.\u201d<\/p>\n
Certified financial planner Kalee Boisvert is also familiar with requests for game token purchases.<\/p>\n
When Boisvert\u2019s 11-year-old daughter \u2014 who has a smartphone without a cellphone plan \u2014 asks for in-app purchases, it starts up a conversation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just that priorities conversation and reviewing with them what matters,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
For example, Boisvert reminded her daughter of an upcoming trip to Disneyland and how it could be better to save for something she may want to buy there.<\/p>\n
Snow said there\u2019s a strong need for financial literacy before kids get their first smartphones.<\/p>\n
She said her 12-year-old son, who doesn\u2019t yet have a smartphone, uses a pocket money app called Mydoh on the computer or Snow\u2019s phone to understand the concept of savings and earnings through chores around the house.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can say, \u2018Okay, if you take your lunch box out of your bag every day, click this button on Mydoh and you\u2019ll get $2 a week for doing that,’\u201d Snow said.<\/p>\n
She said these healthy online financial habits will come in handy when he eventually gets his first smartphone.<\/p>\n
Margot Denomme likens giving smartphones to tweens and teens to driving.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like our kids taking the car out right after they get their driver\u2019s licence,\u201d said Denomme, founder of an advocacy group Raising Awareness About Digital Dangers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t just give them the keys and not ask where they\u2019re going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before handing over their phone, Denomme said parents should disable in-app purchases and turn on parental approval for every purchase.<\/p>\n
Even after setting up their phones for use, she suggested checking in with kids weekly, or even daily at first and asking about what kinds of activities they\u2019re engaging in online.<\/p>\n
\u201cI encourage parents to get involved with their children online so they\u2019re understanding and they\u2019re helping them point out red flags,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Denomme said parents often take their kids\u2019 privacy too seriously.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo \u2014 it\u2019s your phone. You\u2019ve purchased the phone and it\u2019s OK to put these provisions in place,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The narrative about smartphone use among teenagers is changing. There\u2019s been a growing push in the past few…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[49,48,190,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-403220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mobile","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}