Kids communicating without a mobile phone

Daily Life, Swiss News and General Topics
21
I think it may be possible that kids can have them in their bags for the reasons set up above; however, my kid does not want to do that as his interpretation is that no mobile phones allowed. Nada. Zilch. He can be very rigid with interpreting rules sometimes.

Shame the Weenect won’t fit the bill soon. And thank you @Castro for making further enquiries - very kind of you.

@landers - I use the word quite a bit in French - perhaps why I just used it here. Thinking about I am not sure I use it often in English

22
My 4 series watch 😁 needs about an hour to charge, it doesn’t need to be overnight. I charge mine early mornings.

23
Normally, mobile phones being forbidden means they must be switched off and not seen (ie deep in the bag).

When my eldest was too young for a smartphone but had to use school buses and so on, we got him a simple phone designed for elderly people with a prepay card. My number and his father's were on shortcut, and it did the trick.

24
Doesn't the school have a land-line payphone?

If they disallow mobile phones, they should provide an alternative?

I doubt the school would allow an AppleWatch if they don't want phones on kids.

Though, to make really use of the AppleWatch (for calls) you need AirPods (or some other BT headphones) - or set it on speaker.

My school in Germany used to have land-line pay-phone - but that was back in the 90s. A couple of years ago, when I visited, that land-line seems to have disappeared - which I assume means they assume everybody comes to school with a phone anyway....

25
My kid is 9yo. I got him a smartwatch from swisscom with sim card plan for 10ch a month. Watch is great, he can call me and other family members or friends that I add in the watch application. If his friends got same watch they can be added by kid himself. No one from outside the contact list can call him and he cannot call anyone. You can see where your kid is on the map. You can put school hours so he cannot use the watch while in school. Battery sufficient for a day and you get notifications when is les than 20%. You can set boundaries so you get a notification if your kid goes too far.

26
Sound more like an ankle monitor to me, TBH.

27
My son's school (Zürich-City) sent a mail around that mobile phones nor smart watches are allowed.

28
Friend of mine bought such watch 2 years ago, the result is battery does not last even a day because kids play games on the watch. :-)

To say more : kids are the most vulnerable for the radiation emitted by the watch, so keep it also in mind that keep the watch on the kids hand may not be safe idea.

29
Pay-phone?!? What’s that?

There are neither pay phones in the school nor in the big town where we live. I think these days are long gone.

30

If the school would disallow phones, I'd ask them to have one installed.

Can't have it both ways.

31
My watch relays my blood glucose level. Surely schools have to accommodate that sort of thing?

32

It uses GPRS/2G, which is obsolete protocol and not available everywhere , e.g. Swisscom switched off a year ago.

33
The protocol in case of an emergency here is to go to the school office or staff room and ask to use a phone.

An emergency doesn’t mean deciding to go to a friend’s after school, an emergency means missing the bus or losing the bus pass etc.

Pay phones are pretty much obsolete these days.

34
To all parents of young children in Zurich,

does your school forbid to even bring a kid friendly smart watch in the school (even if switched off or handed to the teacher for the duration of the lessons)?

I see many kids going to another close school having all the same smart watch (with gps traker) https://www.mediamarkt.ch/de/product...B&gclsrc=aw.ds ,

but now my son school is forbidding everything.

I tried to discuss with the principal and share our concerns (including past fisical act of bulling on the way home, I even wittnessed one. Not to mention the man that was trying to get kids into his car before Xmas holiday), but her only concern is that kids could take pictures or record during lessons and would not even accept the smart-watch being handed to the teacher during the lessons.

Did any of you managed to get the smartwatch/mobile approved? if yes, how?

Thank you for any constructive answer

35
hi

we've recently bought the TCL MT42 new model with Swisscom abo for our son of 7 years.

He was super happy about this, of course was playing and using it too much in the beginning, but now he realized is a way to stay in contact with us (you can do videocalls) and for us to start sending him to the playground alone.

Localization is sometimes not accurate and/or requires some time to refresh. But overall we're satisfied.

regards

36
in our school is not forbidden but has to be in school-mode during lesson times.

37
yea just give the kid an old burner phone, would be my recommendation. you can still buy them

38

Unfortunately even "normal" mobiles are included in the ban

39
Our school is now flooded with Apple SE watches, and parents are sharing tips on setting up "school mode"; essentially, during preset hours the watch is just a dial telling time + emergency dial feature; so if the kid needs to reach the parent there is a quick way to do so. Once out of school, it becomes fully operational and allows calls, apps and other... I am still on the sidelines, trying to delay the buy but it might not be for long.