My 11 year old niece has a smartphone- im angry

[Spectric]

It's all intensely annoying.

Yes it seems that everyone believes everyone including their pet dog now has a smart phone which is just a really daft assumption, what about all the much older generation who don't even have a Pc or IT skills. I have one somewhere but refuse to carry it about like it is surgically connected to me and needs attention 24/7 as there is so much more to life than sharing what you are about to eat with thousands of strangers.

 

[Doug B]

Is it just a slow day, I’ve only opened 2 threads so far & both of them are old.

 

[Spectric]

Yes that 11 year old probably has a job and a family by now and a smart phone, at some point she will be having the same issues with her youngster about having a smartphone..

 

[JSW]

I have one somewhere but refuse to carry it about like it is surgically connected to me and needs attention 24/7 as there is so much more to life than sharing what you are about to eat with thousands of strangers.

Covid pretty much made them essential. Personally I don't use any social media, even Whatsapp, but the phone never leaves me now, even sits in a cradle on the bedside table, something I would never have entertained for a minute 5 years ago.

I don't carry a wallet anymore, that was a hard habit to break, but the phone's wallet is perfect for a couple of cards/bus pass and some banknotes, which is all I need.

I was used to wearing a watch, why? force of habit, that's all. The phone tells me the time, weather, messages, emails, notifications etc .. all (for me at least) essential everyday items.

The internet's instantly accessible, I can read a book, listen to a podcast, play solitaire etc etc if waiting in a car park/hospital wherever.

Oh, and it's a Moto G31, replacement for a Moto G4, that came highly recommended on these very forums. It's on Amazon atm for £75 quid, worth it just as a backup.

 

[MikeJhn]

You must be young, the flippant way you say "I don't even have Whatsapp" make is sound as though your special not having it, I don't even know what it does and have lived quite successfully without it. I do have a mobile it sits in the armrest of my car for emergencies only, total bill for a year is less than £10.00 hate to think what most people are spending.

 

[GuitardoctorW7]

I just tried to log into my PayPal account and they want to verify my identity by sending a text to my mobile phone, which dose not work at home, the alternative was a text too my Whats app account that I don't have, these assumptions from companies like PayPal is what drives costs up and perpetuates the use of AI in our increasingly automated world.

My wife got a call on WA purporting to be from a group she's in. They asked for a code she'd been sent and naively gave it to them. That started a real s**t storm as it was a professional scammer. They basically took over her account and started to contact everyone in her directory asking for money, usually £500! I got many a text and call from people asking if she was OK?
Trying to recover the account was a nightmare as the recovery code was sent to "other mobile setting" namely theirs and before I had a chance to change it to my wife's mobile they were waiting and beat me to it.
WA have a recovery protocol where the account is frozen for ten hours, and this happens twice. After the second ten hour period I managed to recover the account and set up two factor authorisation.
This is a common scam that's doing the rounds at the moment. Sadly one of my wife's contact lost £500 to it. It also caused a considerable amount of friction between us.
Beware!

 

[GuitardoctorW7]

You must be young, the flippant way you say "I don't even have Whatsapp" make is sound as though your special not having it, I don't even know what it does and have lived quite successfully without it. I do have a mobile it sits in the armrest of my car for emergencies only, total bill for a year is less than £10.00 hate to think what most people are spending.

WhatsApp is useful for phone calls. My outlaws live in Ireland and it used to cost a fortune to call them but now WA is free providing both ends have reasonable Wi Fi access

 

[stuart little]

I get extremely annoyed by companies who every now & then, block one's online log in & send a PIN to a mobile. Sainsbury's online shopping used to do it regularly, but it's only very occasionally now- I think my complaining helped, after all it's only basic shopping - who's gonna buy shopping to be delivered to my address? Most of the time, my mobi battery runs down, despite the phone being 'off'. It takes about 5 mins to find a signal, & that's from another room. At least my PayPal & bank allows me to choose email or landline, YAY! I've still got one, although it's now digi.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

At our old address we had a broadband package which included as an add on a landline with free anytime calls. Cost was ~£13 per month.

On moving I got rid of anytime calls. Stll have a landline with a new number. It very rarely rings as no one knows it (bar Talk-Talk, scammers and granddaughter). Provides back-up if ever required.

Smartphone for a SIM only contract gives me unlimited calls, texts and plenty of data. Cost £7 per month. Phone connects to car to allow calls, texts, satnav etc. Landlines are going the way of video cassettes and dvd/cd's - an obsolete expensive technology.

 

[JSW]

You must be young, the flippant way you say "I don't even have Whatsapp" make is sound as though your special not having it, I don't even know what it does and have lived quite successfully without it. I do have a mobile it sits in the armrest of my car for emergencies only, total bill for a year is less than £10.00 hate to think what most people are spending.

Either quote me in full or not at all, that isn't what I said.

Whatsapp is like a halfway house between texting and full on social media, Facebook, X, TikTok etc etc. I've used it, but still find it invasive, as in it displays online status, last seen etc. I'll stick to texting.

I rather thought the mention of a Bus pass might give the smallest of hints regarding my age?

My phone contract is a fiver per month. Free texts and calls, 10 gig of data IIRC, all I need.

 

[paulrbarnard]

You must be young, the flippant way you say "I don't even have Whatsapp" make is sound as though your special not having it, I don't even know what it does and have lived quite successfully without it. I do have a mobile it sits in the armrest of my car for emergencies only, total bill for a year is less than £10.00 hate to think what most people are spending.

Mine runs to close to £100 a month as I use it internationally a lot and also use a lot of data while travelling.

 

[Blackswanwood]

Mine runs to close to £100 a month as I use it internationally a lot and also use a lot of data while travelling.

Have you considered using an e-sim (Holafly, Ariol etc?) when abroad Paul?

 

[paulrbarnard]

Have you considered using an e-sim (Holafly, Ariol etc?) when abroad Paul?

I looked at it but the costs for regular use tends to escalate quite rapidly. I’m often in the arse end of nowhere so tend to use a lot of cellular data.

 

[kinverkid]

I think that if was invented today it wouldn't be referred to as a mobile telephone but would probably called a pocket computer or media device. It has become an essential item for me as a camera, messenger/texter, fitness tracker, GPS, What Three Words and SATNAV, for contactless payments, loyalty card at supermarkets, trying to read small text on items, recording what something looked like before I stripped it down, music and audiobook player, instruction videos, video player and ebooks on flights and sometimes but not often - a telephone conversation.

 

[JSW]

trying to read small text on items

Forgot about that one, left my glasses upstairs and trying to read the instructions on whatever, out of the pocket comes the phone, built in magnifier, problem sorted.

 

[throbscottle]

Sunnybob - I hope you check your "emergency only" phone periodically to make sure it still works! It would be a b****r if such an emergency arose and you couldn't use it.

 

[Croolis]

My boy's (12) mum, who I;ve been split up with for a very long time and with whom I have a very bad relationship, gave him his first smartphone about a year ago, her old iPhone. Because she's not too bright, she decided it would be sensible to not wipe it before she gave it to him, so it had all of our arguments via Whatsapp and text on it, presumably arguments with all the failed boyfriends and other people that she argues with (she has issues and lives alone). I only know this because when she gave it to him, I went to add myself as a contact and found all this crap on it, including sexting stuff. I didn't look at it for more than two minutes, that was enough. When I asked her to wipe it, she inexplicably refused. She'd put a pay as you go sim in it, never topped it up. After several months of asking her to wipe it, and offering to put a sim in it myself and pay for it, I finally just wiped it myself and put a sim in it I bought.

She then cut my access to my kid in half as a result, threw away the sim card (this was 7 months ago), put her one back in, but never put any credit on it. I'm starting court action as soon as I'm ready to get more contact. She's stated she'll tell the social services that I hit my lad if I do (needless to say, I've never hit him).

It's not the phone, it's the person in charge of it.

 

[JSW]

@Croolis Assuming you weren't married, do you have a Parental Responsibility agreement in place?

 

[Amplidyne]

Sunnybob - I hope you check your "emergency only" phone periodically to make sure it still works! It would be a b****r if such an emergency arose and you couldn't use it.

Only the other day, the OHs mobile had a text come from O2. "We're stopping supporting the old type sim you have in your phone"
The phone immediately stopped working, which is a pain due to OTPs etc. She doesn't use the phone much, but I've got her a cheap monthly contract on my own contract, and a new phone. Now struggling to get the old number back in place! Looks like that's OK though.

She hadn't used the old PAYG phone for ages, so the PAYG just isn't a reliable way of having a phone. The cheapest PAYG, is dearer than the cheapest contract (at least here, not much choice of networks.

 

[Croolis]

@Croolis Assuming you weren't married, do you have a Parental Responsibility agreement in place?

I'm on the birth certificate, he has my surname. No question about me having parental responsibility.