It’s quiz results day!
As promised, here are the results gathered by T-Mobile, with the most popular responses in bold. Read them and follow the directions below for a second chance to win the ruby T-Mobile BlackBerry® Pearl™ 8100 and orange Nokia 5310 XpressMusic.
- 15% – Elementary School
- 48% – Middle School
- 31% – High School
- 6% – Never; only adults should have mobile phones.
What would motivate you the most to buy your child a phone?
- 70% – Safety (knowing they can always reach me)
- 20% – Coordinating busy schedules (pick-ups, etc.)
- 4% – Social (keeping them in touch with family and friends)
- 6% – Nothing; I don’t think children should have phones.
What concerns you the most about providing your child with a mobile phone?
- 30% – Surprise bills because my child would text or download too much without my knowledge.
- 46% – Not knowing who my child is talking or texting with.
- 11% – Losing my child’s attention when we are together because they’re using their phone instead of engaging in the moment.
- 12% – Access to inappropriate content.
If you were considering buying a mobile phone for your child, what would be the #1 purchase factor?
- 26% – Cost of service.
- 65% – Ability to manage usage (example: set limits on minutes, texting, times of use and available features).
- 1% – Choice of phones.
- 5% – Network/coverage.
How did you do? How do the above results compare to your answers?
In high school we had an English teacher who centered most of our papers around comparing and contrasting. In honor of Mrs. Brandt and freshman English, compare and contrast your answers to the results above and get a second chance to win a ruby T-Mobile BlackBerry® Pearl™ 8100 for yourself and an orange Nokia 5310 XpressMusic for your child in case you want to try the new T-Mobile Family Allowances plan!
Good luck and thanks to T-Mobile for sponsoring this giveaway!
Fine print: To be eligible, comments must follow guidelines outlined above and contain an e-mail address where you can be contacted when you win. Comments must be received by August 20, 2008 at Midnight. Winner will be chosen at random by random.org and will need to reply with 48 hours to claim their prize. Giveaway does not include T-Mobile service plan.
This blog post is original to Tech Savvy Mama and may not be reposted without permission. Tech Savvy Mama does not do paid blog posts.
Thanks for reading Tech Savvy Mama through your feed!
Original post by Tech Savvy Mama
©2012
LOL, the English teacher in me loves this. So, my answers were all the same as your poll winners *except* for what concerns me most – that answer was not in the available options. Which I know as a test giver means that my answer wasn’t counted and all but I couldn’t resist. I am most concerned about my kid focusing on the phone and related activities (texting, chatting) and that distracting from other types of kid fun (exercise, relating to actual humans in vicinity, etc). HTH
Come back on Saturday to comment since I’ve just included your question as a “bonus point” question for an extra entry. Thanks for the suggestion!
The only answer I differed with the herd on was not knowing who my child was talking or texting with vs. attention.
I believe that by the time I give my children a cell phone, I will have done everything in my power to teach them about appropriate/inappropriate talking and texting.
Plus, I’d hack my kid’s cell to review all texts and would check all numbers – being tech savvy has its perks and my poor kids won’t have an ounce of privacy until they leave home. I’ll see to it even if I have to break out an old-fashioned keylogging program to make sure of it LOL
I can only teach my kids so much and trust in a greater power to make sure their cell phone doesn’t become a headline news story and example to other moms on why not to give kids cell phones.
I think my kids’ attention is going to wane from wanting to talk to me bad enough as it is…the thought of giving them another excuse to look at something other than mom just breaks my heart…and it hasn’t even happened yet.
Jen
p.s. These are amazing prizes!!
jennydecki@beyondmom.com 🙂
My results were half the same, half different. I agreed with them was the last question and the second question, but think that kids shoudl get phones in elementary school and that surprise bills are more of a concern than the kid talking to people w/o me knowing. (I assume I’d be able to check that sorta thing on the phone)
mitanari@yahoo.com
My answers are the same as the majority;
I think ALSO you just have to set a good example and have rules…
our neighbors have 3 kids in grade school, middle school and high school – they all have cell phones and my neighbors said they’ve never had a problem (their mom is a scientist and their father – a law professor).
I got 50% based on the popular vote, but I still think I’m right!
superdumbsupervillain @ cox. net
Thanks for the second chance! I appreciate it! I had answered that I think elementary aged children should have a cell phone. I think it is as important for younger children to be able to reach someone as older ones.
The only additional concern I had with children and cell phones is the radiation exposure on a young brain. I would love to be entered in your drawing. Thanks very much! Cindi
jchoppes[at]hotmail[dot]com
Well, I said HS is when they should get a phone. but in reality I’m sure my daughter will have a phone around middle school. It just seems to be a fact of life that everyone has a cell phone these days. Are iPods next on the pre-teen’s must haves?
I agree with MamaBird. I’m more concerned about how “plugged in” our kids will be. All the time spent on electronic gadgets instead of socializing face to face.
I was in the majority on the questions except possibly #1. I can see giving a mobile phone to an older child in elementary school if the child was responsible and had a genuine need to be able to reach his/her parents. At this age, a mobile phone should be for emergencies only anyway. Parents should let their children know that they will regularly check who they are calling and when they are making calls. I am so glad that my kids under the age of 5- I don’t have to think about this for a few years, I hope!
laylarenee[at]cfl.rr.com
Here are my answers.
* High School
* Coordinating busy schedules (pick-ups, etc.)
* Not knowing who my child is talking or texting with.
* Ability to manage usage (example: set limits on minutes, texting, times of use and available features.
Thanks for the chance.
kadanne [at] gmail [.] com
Let’s see I got #1 & #2 the same & the last two were different. I picked the surprise bill vs not knowing just because I know my daughter & I know she doesn’t understand the concept of each thing costing money.
On number 4, I picked cost of service just because money is a big issue in our family right now, or lack there of, lol. I’d love to be able to set limits, that is awesome, but I have to be able to afford that service first, he he.
My answers were only in the majority for one question. That’s 25% – so I guess my opinion doesn’t match the majority well. 🙂 My priorities were safety and that agreed with the majority vote. I don’t think kids should have cell phones until high school, but I may change my mind as my kids get older. I would be more concerned with big bills and cost of service. I think I would be more concerned about who my kids would be texting with if they were girls.
(I think I wasn’t signed in when I left my comment here before. Sorry if there are two.)
Basically I said that because I don’t want to be surprised by a thousand dollar texting bill, I agree with number 2.
And the more I think about it, once my kids are old enough to be places without parents, I will require them to have cell phones so that they can reach me/I can reach them in an emergency.
My answers were inline with the majority on 3 out of 4 of the questions. On the final question, I answered cost of service, while most responders preferred ability to manage. I guess if the answer said ability to manage the cost of service, that would have fit my requirements better.
signals@shorethings.net
Wow. My answers were right in line with the others except I’m still tossing around middle school vs high school.
sahmtoo at gmail dot com
my answers were about the ‘norm’ except that I chose having a cell to coordinate pickups and such.
a cell really isnt a necessity, but this day and age it has become one.