Right now there’s a video online of comedian Louis C.K. talking to Conan O’brien about how he won’t let his kids have a cell phone.  His main premise is that they don’t get the real person to person connection when they communicate with the other person.  For example, if they tell a person their fat in person, they can see the pain a person feels, but if they text them, they don’t get that interaction and don’t know that it’s wrong.  Another reason he states is that they don’t learn how to do nothing.

I agree with him to an extent, but I don’t think you need to go the extreme route and say they don’t get one.  With our daughter, we limit the amount of time she has with her smartphone and tablet, yet her smartphone doesn’t make calls yet so she’s not really communicating with it.  For older kids, I think you have to set boundaries on when they can and can’t use them or even have them.  No phones at the table, church, or when you have company to the house.

In the Silicon Valley, you often see kids as young as pre-school age walking around with smartphones that do make calls and texts.  I can understand it in some situations, but the majority of the time I think this is too young.  I haven’t decided on an age that my daughter can have a phone that makes calls, but it won’t be until she’s mature enough to deal with one, regardless if other kids have them.

Here’s Louis C.K.’s rant: