Think I've lost my marbles? A couple of years ago I would have thought the same thing. What's changed? I'll get to that in a minute.
First, let's get past the cost issue. If you're not planning to get you child a cell phone at all, then there's not much argument to be made here. If, on the other hand, a cell phone is in your kid's future, immediately writing off the iPhone due to cost might not be so straightforward. I'll admit, the iPhone is a bit more expensive than the cheapest cell phones, but did you know you can get one for less than $50 with a two year AT&T contract? No, it isn't the latest model, but it is an excellent phone and one any adolescent would be proud to carry. The voice + data plan will cost about $15 per month more than AT&T's bargain service, but if you're an AT&T customer already, their family plans will ease that pain a bit. Also, by providing an iPhone you'll spare the expense of buying them an iPod (if you ever plan to). The same goes for a digital camera. The iPhone is as good a portable music player as there is (after all, it is an iPod) and the camera is also very, very good for both stills and movies. How about a portable game device like a Nintendo DS or PSP (PlayStation Portable)? You can probably mark those off your list also. The iOS platform (the operating system used by the iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch) has quickly become the world's most popular portable gaming system and games average less than $5 each compared to $30 on other systems. Plus, there are literally thousands of free ones, not to mention the really useful apps like dictionaries, language translators and a fully referenced bible. I'm not saying any of these cost arguments apply to you, but some might. They're just things to consider when deciding whether you can afford (or want to pay for) the additional cost of an iPhone.
All three of my daughters now have iPhones. The two oldest (24 & 21) bought their own and my wife and I supply our twelve year-old. I won't try to get into the philosophical aspects of deciding the right age for cell phone use, but it's apparent lots of you think twelve is an OK age based on the number of cell phones I spotted at my daughter's birthday party last month. Regardless of a kid's age, there are many parental advantages when they pack an iPhone versus some other model. First, you'll always know where your child is. A free feature with every iPhone is GPS tracking. Using your computer or cell phone, you can visit Apple's web site and use their Find My iPhone feature, which plots the iPhone's location on a Google map. I use this feature for all my daughters and my own iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The feature works very fast and I've found it to be accurate to within 100 feet or so. It's true, this feature only tells you where the phone is, but if your child is like mine they are more likely to forget their pants than their cell phone. In the unlikely event the iPhone is misplaced, you can also tell the phone to emit an annoying tone using the same web site. This can be handy when the phone is lost in the sofa cushions while in "vibrate only" mode. You can also display a special message on the iPhone's screen like: "If you find this phone please call 555-1212" or "You'd might as well leave the phone and walk away. In five minutes I will disable it, call the police and tell them where you are." I’ve read more than one story about iPhone owners tracking down their phone after leaving it in a restaurant or elsewhere. One man even helped the police find his stolen car with his iPhone in the console.
That brings me to my next point, security. In addition to your list of contacts, today’s cell phones can contain a lot of personal information you wouldn’t want in the wrong hands. Apple gives you the ability to lock or wipe the phone completely with a couple of clicks using the Find My iPhone web site should the phone be lost or stolen. Your child’s text messages, photos, calendar, web history, email and any other personal data is not something you’d want a bad guy to have. The great news is, even if you wipe the phone it can still be tracked and because iTunes does such a good job of backing up the device, restoring it puts all that information back in just a few minutes when the phone is recovered or replaced. iPhones have all the normal security features of other cell phones plus a whole lot more. Sure there is a normal password lock, but because the phone does so much, there are parental controls for everything from what type of games, music and movies you allow to whether the location service can be switched on or off. These parental controls are activated by a separate password that only you know. Lets face it; kids are technically savvy. If a child decided they didn’t want anyone to know where their cell phone was, it would probably take them all of two seconds to disable the location feature.
Lastly, the iPhone is so popular there have been a plethora of third-party applications (for both Windows and Mac) for viewing the phone’s contents. Simply plugging the iPhone into your computer’s USB port gives you access (parental password permitting) to all the photos, text messages, web history, voice mail and chat history stored on the phone. This history cannot be erased without the parental control password so only you can view or delete it. Even though I vehemently oppose spying on kids in general, there are times when knowing about their phone usage is as important as knowing about their computer usage. In fact, the iPhone is a computer. It just makes phone calls and has a smaller screen.
My twelve year-old carried a cheap cell phone for a few months. I was afraid an iPhone was more hardware than a kid her age should have. I liked the fact that I could reach her whenever I needed to, but sometimes when she didn’t answer her phone I would fear the worst. She didn’t get an iPhone until I upgraded to the iPhone 4 and handed down my previous model, the 3GS (the $49 model offered by AT&T). Now, if she doesn’t answer, it only takes about 30 seconds to track the phone’s location. Knowing that she’s where she is supposed to be is peace of mind I gladly pay $15 more per month for. Does that mean I’ve lost my marbles?