This seems like a really solid value. I'm torn between getting an Apple Watch SE with cellular for my 6th grader who needs some cellular connectivity for calling us for various after school activities, or if I should try to hold out for another year and get her a used iPhone. Don't really feel like a 6th grader needs a smartphone, but she says most of her friends have one. If I get her an SE, it might hold her off on bugging me about it for a couple more years and save some money on the phone bill, lol.
If this Apple Watch is capable of cell phone calls by itself, without a smartphone (I don’t know, I’ve never had an Apple Watch), it’s definitely the right tool for a kid.
If a 6th grader is an 11 year old child, the phone bill is the last thing you should worry about giving open, unrestricted, unsupervised internet access. I mean, sometimes I get the feeling most parents haven’t used the internet like a younger person would, but there are many dangers to a child’s mental and sexual health out there, accessible either through the browser, through social media apps, or now through the use of AI. The safest way to introduce a child to the internet is through a supervised internet connected PC in a shared environment such as the living room.
Keep in mind that most of us who were born before the 2000s had Internet access while we were almost adults, with a well developed brain at 17 or 18 years old. What’s happening now to kids being exposed to such intense stimulus at such early stages is something unprecedented and with unknown consequences…
You could, of course, buy her a feature phone, but that will make her be pointed by her classmates. Little does she know, that the ones doing the wrong thing for their age, are their classmates and not her. And that, ultimately, the responsible of all of this, are the parents, teachers and education institutions that allow this.
