RELEVANT CHILDREN'S MINISTRY

How old should kids be before they get their own smartphone?

That's a question that today's parents have to figure out.

When I was a child, the big question was when can I get my driver's license and start driving?  

But in today's culture, the bigger question kids are asking is "When can I get my first smartphone?" 

PCMag recently polled a thousand parents and asked them when they'd feel comfortable giving their child a smartphone.  Here are the results.   

53% said ages 12-to-15-years old.

23% said ages  9-to-11-years old.

17% said  ages 16-to-18 years old.

There are some valid reasons why you should give your child a smart phone.

It makes it easier for you to stay in touch with them.  It gives you the ability to check on your child instantly. 

It may be tied to their school assignments.  As kids get older, their teachers may give them assignments that involve using a smartphone.  Parents want to make sure their child doesn't get left behind.

Emergencies.  When there is an emergency and parents need to find out their child's status, they can do so with a smartphone. 

There are also valid reasons why parents should not get their child a smartphone at an early age.

It can change parent's bonding with their child.  As kids grow, they should be bonding with their parents.  This happens best with face-to-face interactions and connectivity.  A text message on a screen simply cannot match a face-to-face conversation.

It can cause less sleep.  A smartphone is a portal to endless games, conversations and information.  These interactions can become addictive to the point where kids sleep with their smartphone right beside them.  It's hard to have a stellar day at school when you were up all night on your smartphone.

It can impact your child's mental health.  Experts say smartphone use could negatively impact a child's mental health.  Smartphones can bring bullying and other vices that can cause depression and anxiety. 

Smartphones can lead to behavioral problems.  When kids spend endless hours with a smartphone, it can cause both emotional and social problems.  It also shortens children's already minuscule attention spans.

It exposes children to violence.  A smartphone opens the door for violent games and apps.

For these and other reasons,  parents should be very intentional about when they will give their child a smartphone.   They must also be diligent to guide their child through the blessings and dangers that daily emerge from smartphones.

Your turn. Does your child have a smartphone?  At what age did you give it to them?  Has it been a good thing in your child's life?  Or perhaps a negative thing so far?  What other advice would you give to parents who are debating about giving their child a smartphone or not?

You see more and more pre-teens with smartphones.  While some parents resist giving their kids phones until they hit their middle-school or high school years, more and more are saying "yes." 

When kids get a smartphone, it immediately becomes an indispensable device.  Want to know how much pre-teens like their smartphones?  A survey was done among them that asked the question, "What device would you choose if you could only have one?"  Would it be their tablet?  Video game system?  Laptop?

45% of pre-teen girls say their smartphone would be their one and only device if they had to choose.  This represents a 36% increase in the last 3 years.  27% of pre-teen boys say their smartphone would be their one and only device if they had to choose.  This also represents a 36% increase in the last 3 years.  These results show that the smartphone has become tween's preferred handheld device.  46% of pre-teens currently own a smartphone.  9% of pre-teens boys and 23% of pre-teen girls say they are saving their money to buy a smartphone.  The number of pre-teens who own smartphones will continue to rise.

Ministries that want to effectively connect with pre-teens will take this into consideration and find ways to connect with them via their smartphones.  Here are some questions to think about.

What smartphone apps can be developed that will help disciple pre-teens?

How can ministries use social media to reach pre-teens?  

How can smartphones be used to bring pre-teens and their parents together for spiritual conversations during the week?

How can ministries ensure that they are following safety and security guidelines and protect kids while interacting with them through their smartphones?

How can smartphones be used during a lesson to teach kids Biblical truth?

How can we equip pre-teens to share their faith with their friends through their smartphones?

Share your thoughts and ideas with us in the comment section below.

There is a smart way to partner with parents...literally.

"Smartphones."  Most of the parents in your ministry constantly have them in hand.  In 2011, 35% of American adults owned a smartphone.  Today, it's over 64%.

Here are some smart ways to connect with parents through their smartphones.

Text Messages
Did you know that 98% of text messages get read?  Send a text message to the parents in your ministry and it will get noticed.  You can read here about how to use text messages to partner with parents. 

Email
Most parents are notified when an email hits their smartphone.  Here's another opportunity to email discussion questions, upcoming events, parenting tips and more.

Facebook
Parents have Facebook on their smartphones and they check it often.  Some of the ways to use this is to start a parent page where you post follow-up discussion questions, parenting tips, upcoming events and more.

Twitter
Here's another social media platform parents use on their smartphones.  Open a twitter account for your children's ministry.

Instagram
Open an Instagram account for your children's ministry and use it to post graphics, announcements, parenting tips, etc.

Pinterest
The moms in your children's ministry spend a lot of time on Pinterest.  Post pictures of upcoming lessons, events, parenting tips, etc.

What are some other ways you use smartphones to partner with parents?  Share with us in the comment section below.

A recent study at UCLA indicates smart phones may be limiting face to face interactions and could be hindering social skill development for kids.

The study says smartphones could be a roadblock in children's development of the ability to read emotions.

"You can't learn nonverbal emotional cues from a screen in the way you can learn it from face-to-face communication," says lead author Yalda Uhls.  "If you're not practicing face-to-face communication, you could be losing important social skills."

One thing we do know...smartphones are here to stay and they are being given to kids at younger and younger ages.

What do you think?  Are smartphones hurting kids' social skills?

Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.

Who's leading the way in a new generation of kids who use touchscreen more often than a keyboard?

The kids in your early childhood rooms!  The use of touchscreen apps for kids under five is accelerating.  

A recent study shows that 38% of kids two and younger have used mobile devices, up from 10% two years ago.  47% of three to five-year-olds are able to navigate a smartphone and 57% can operate at least one app.

Ownership of tablets among families with preschoolers has increased from 8% to 40% in two years.  The amount of time preschoolers spend with touchscreen tablets has tripled during this same time frame.  The average infant or preschooler spends 15 minutes a day with a touchscreen device.  Infants and toddlers spend twice as much time with tablets as with books.

As the prevalence of tablets and smartphones increases with kids under five, more kids entertainment companies – including Nickelodeon and Disney - are expanding in the mobile preschool space.  Here are the top 5 apps that are connecting with Generation touchscreen.

1. Disney Story Central – Disney
2. PlayKids – Movile
3. Endless Numbers – Originator
4. Little People Player – Fisher-Price
5. Disney Junior Appisodes – Disney

The preschoolers you are ministering to truly are digital natives.  Are you prepared to connect with them? 

Smartphone addiction.  It affects a lot of people...including parents.

Recent studies show that many parents are so addicted to their smartphones that they often ignore their children in favor of a mobile device.

A study was done watching 55 different groups of parents eating at a fast food restaurant with their kids.  Many parents immediately pulled out their mobile device and engaged with it the whole time they were eating.  They were more absorbed with the device than their kids.

This can be an issue since face-to-face interactions are the primary way children learn and connect.  The study also showed kids whose parents were absorbed with their mobile devices were more likely to act out, in an effort to get their parents' attention.

Over 1,000 children between the ages of 4 and 18 were interviewed and asked about their parents' use of mobile devices.  The language that came up over and over again, was, "sad, mad, angry and lonely."  One 4 year old called his dad's smartphone a "stupid phone."  One girl said, "I feel like I'm just boring.  I'm boring because my dad will take any text, any call, anytime - even on the ski lift!"

Is the "ping" hurting parents' relationship with their children?  Studies show that parents should think twice before picking up a mobile device when they're with their kids.