I have no kids. But if I did, I think itās best to expose social media to kids as soon as possible.
They need to learn how to defend themselves mentally.
daughter got a phone at 9. clearly she had some issues adapting to it in the first 6 months. But now its no big deal.
But I had also given her a tablet at age 6 with no content restrictions. she had a youtube channel at age 7. So the phone was really just adding social media on top of already known internet world.
cant imagine just throwing all that at a 12 yr old at once.
Agree, lots of bullies are ambitious. This plan will not stop bullying. Also lots of nice kids arenāt interested in school so a bunch of decent people will miss out on the education they donāt value yet.
Problem with social media is that the bullies arenāt coming from your own school, but all schools.
Being publicly blasted by thousands of people that you donāt even know can feel like you no longer have a place in this world at that age.
Hmmm. Maybe we should just ban school.
social media is incessant and the ability for a person to be more cruel virtually compared to IRL is a terrible mix. the phones are super bad for the bullied kid.
that said, my kids got phones at middle school. when most peers also got them.
One school I taught at had anti-bullying posters made by kids as a project of some sort. The caption on one of them though read āBullying is for losers!ā 
(Iām sure they meant it in the least ironic sense possible.)
My oldest is 7 who has a kids tablet so it has some restrictions, although she navigates youtube pretty regularly on the TV. Was a cell phone at 9 a good outcome? I donāt suggest banning these things from her entirely but I could conceive of something like try to hold off on social media till high school? Maybe thatās naive though.
Yeah I could see ~11 being a common age with middle schoolā¦ perhaps with regular coaching to support not suffering from the negative consequences of being active online
this seems a bit late.
a lot of the socialization when I went to middle school was already online (AIM, my space, etc), and that was over 20 years ago.
Yeah I definitely used AIM in middle school and have nostalgic memories back to thatā¦ although in hindsight it was a lot of feeling down on myself for not having more friends (particularly of the opposite sex), although I donāt think preventing my use of AIM would have done much to help in that regard.
Have you heard the sounds of the bodies hitting the ground on 9/11? 
Iām not sure āsplatā is how I would describe the sound, and I donāt know what it looked like, but
You just turned a fun laugh about a bully jerk going splat into something sad
Recent middle school experience tells me that the kids arent mature enough for them in middle school. Its a huge hassle in the school. And the school tries but the age is impulsive and the instant everything the phone brings is an obstacle to overcome.
That said, thats the age they all seem to get them, parents like them having them at this age, etc.
Thatās definitely true in middle school. High school is better, but not by much.
Well also isnāt that when parents are leaving them more? Theyāre going to be home alone, they need a phone (most people donāt have land lines these days).
They have an after-school activity they need to call when itās over. Theyāre babysitting and they need to call for a ride homeā¦ that sort of thing.
Back in my day :heynow: Iād use the land line of the people I was babysitting for, or the pay phone at school to call my parents. But those things largely donāt exist now.
We donāt have the :heynow: emoji?!?!