I Gave My Kids Phones at Age 7

Watch the episode here:

• Discover why giving kids phones at age 7 might be the best parenting decision you make.
• Learn how early technology access can create lasting family memories from a unique perspective.
• Find out how to establish healthy boundaries with technology while still embracing it.
• Get practical tips for raising digitally mature kids in a technology-driven world.
• Hear how going against conventional parenting wisdom worked out surprisingly well.

What’s shakin’? Hey, I’m Rick Jordan. Today, we’re going all in. We’re gonna talk about today about kids in a question I’ve gotten a lot from people, which is, hey, what’s the best age to give your kids a phone? This is something that I have a unique perspective on that I will share with you today and some of the reasons why I did it, as also some advice for you too, some things that I’ve discovered over the past couple of years. So here we go. Yes, share this with three people, because this is going to be some good information. Now I’m going to start ready to drop the bomb right away. All of my kids got their first iPhone when they were seven years old. That’s it, seven years old, really, really young, and I’ll explain some of the reasons why they got that back then. There was one overarching reason why they had phones when they were seven years old, and this can be if you’re getting them an Android; whatever you know, the family stuff and parental protection have come a long way since then, because my oldest kids are going to be 15 here in just a few short weeks, which is kind of cool. So they’ve had phones for eight years now, and back then, there weren’t as many parental controls and protections and everything as there is right now, which I’m actually kind of grateful for. And we’ll talk about that a little bit too. So whether it’s Android, or Google has a family link, the iPhone has the family, family sharing, and some screen time controls you can put into place. But the reason why I got my kids phones when they were seven. 

Now I have twins, and they both got phones at the same time, but at that age, it’s really cool. I’ve talked about this before, but I started flying my kids places by themselves. Because I travel for business, I started flying them one at a time to come and meet me somewhere to spend a couple days with me. You know, whether it’s Florida or wherever we’ve been Disney Vacation Club members for a long time. So I would conduct my business and then fly them down to meet me, one, just one of them at a time, to come to meet me, to spend some one, one time on, like, a little quick mini vacation in a different state, to do something pretty fun. And I would do something special. Like the very first one to do this was my daughter, Ariel. And when she flew down to Florida to meet me, it was in Tampa. We went to Clearwater Marine Aquarium. And at that time, there was a Disney movie going around about a hope and winter the dolphins that are there. I can’t remember the name of the movie, but I actually took her to see hope and winter at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Clearwater Beach, Florida, and to this day, no No kidding, she actually has because almost 15 years old, the one photo that’s actually hanging over her bed, over her headboard is up on the wall, about three feet up, is the photo that we had when she was actually petting hope when we were in the water there. Was really, really cool, and it’s awesome that she’s held on to that memory this far, and so she had a phone right, taught her how to use it and everything, because if she was traveling alone, even though planes, you know, airlines, have pretty good unaccompanied minor programs, it’s really cool because you actually can get a security pass and go through with your kid to literally to the jet way, and then with the unaccompanied minor program, they will take your kid onto the plane for you right from there. 

So it’s like a kid hand off, and then the same thing happens when you pick them up at the other airport, when the other parent or guardian picks them up, is they are walked on first to the plane, and then they’re walked off first, literally, with a flight attendant right there, and then just hand it to you so you meet them right there, at the Jet way past security, so they don’t have to navigate an airport all by themselves. It’s pretty cool. Still, I wanted them to have some kind of phone taught them how to connect to Wi Fi in the air so they could message right over I message. That’s another reason why I got iPhones at that time, you know, because we’re talking a while back, you know, I wasn’t like hardcore iPhone versus Android, but my message was something that went over the internet that you could actually use, even for free, on a lot of planes of that a lot of airlines at that time. So I got them phones to stay in communication. That was the primary reason that I got them phones at age seven was because of these awesome travel things that we would do, like I took my son to my oldest son to the Kennedy Space Center on his first trip with him, to have a good time with him. Or one of the first trips just with him, just something really special that only he and I have ever done. No one else in the family has ever gone there, just he and I have done it. It was awesome, too. Now there was a byproduct, a very good byproduct, which I just thought about the other day because in this family thread, I got a photo or a video. Know of two of my kids, Alec and Ariel, just goofing around. I mean, just some of the amazing, most, cutest stuff and really, really funny stuff, because they’re your kids in the back seat of a car, right? And it was actually Ariel who was taking this video. And she was, like, seven years old at the time. It was shortly after she got her phone, and I found out through that that over the years, you know, there’s always been photos and videos that have been shared here and there, but capturing these memories has been this amazing, amazing byproduct of all of my kids having phones when they were so young that they were able to capture these memories, and it’s stuff that you could never possibly capture as a parent, absolutely not because it’s from their perspective as a seven-year-old, as a 10-year-old, as a 12-year-old, whatever it’s from their perspective. And it’s so cool to be able to see these things years later from a different point of view, and just appreciate and love your kids so much more because you’re able to now go back and see things that you never even saw. 

It’s just these amazing moments that you never even saw back then because you weren’t even physically present. You were in the other room or, you know, at a different place, or whatever. And they took these videos because they had phones. It’s absolutely incredible. I mean, for this reason alone, outside of when they travel by themselves, for this reason alone, I am so glad that they had these, and I would encourage you to do the same. And this is a matter of principle for me: get your kids in anything right, in anything right, expose them when they’re young in a controlled environment, and teach them how to use these things in the right way, and they’re going to be just fine with them, absolutely just fine with them. Because I’ve gotten all the arguments, believe me, I have gotten all the judgments. I’ve gotten all the shunning I’ve gotten all the you should not do this crap from a lot of other parents, because they’re projecting the crap that they go through with their own kids onto me, and I’m sorry it just didn’t work this way, because I did this right. I’m going to tell you I did this right with my kids, getting them involved in communications and electronics at an early age. Now I’m not talking about giving a two-year-old or a five-year-old an iPad while you’re out to dinner. You know what? I never, ever, ever did that. Never brought an iPad with to a meal, and my kids were right at the age I’ve had an iPad. I’m in cyber security, I’m in tech. I’ve had iPads since the very first one. Never, ever bring an iPad with me to a dinner table going out or whatever because it has no place.

 There is absolutely no place. I don’t care, because your kids will get used to what you give them and what you put in front of them, period. So you’re able to work around that stuff. And this is why my kids, at a very, very young age, too, were able to have formal dinners. No joke, I don’t regret any of this stuff. They had phones when they were seven and not having iPads at any dinner table. I regret none of those. I feel like those were some of the best decisions that I could have ever made. Now I’m going to give you a couple of tips on this too. Now they’re a little older, right? And there’s new things, right? Back then, they didn’t FaceTime many of their friends and cousins because they were literally the only ones with phones. Now they’re in their teenage years, and of course, it’s FaceTime all the time. And there are a couple of rules that I have, you know because now it’s like other boys and girls are in the mix and crushes and all this other thing, right? And being 14-year-olds or whatever, there are a couple of house rules that I have that they’re more than willing to follow, and it actually works out okay. Trust me on this one. It works out completely okay. The biggest one is when you’re on a call with, if you’re my son, and you’re on a call with a girl, or if you’re my daughter, you’re on a call with a boy or FaceTime, whatever, you can be in your room. That’s all good, but your door is open. Your door is wide open. I’m not talking cracked. I’m not talking, you know, halfway. I’m not talking, you know, just a little sliver. I’m talking wide open. And what’s really cool about this is that I will catch my daughter in a completely different room than her bedroom, meaning she’ll just be on a couch somewhere, talking with a boy. It’s pretty amazing, because there’s no shame right there, and this is because she understands; it’s because of the age that she’s at and everything. It’s like, there’s just communications and that such. Now, remember, I grew up, you know, I’m not old.

 I’m 42, but there’s been a lot of advances in technology over the past several decades. You know, I grew up in a home where there was literally just one phone, and that phone was in the kitchen. So anytime you wanted to talk with a girl, for me, anyway, I had to do it in the kitchen with everybody else around me, right? When I was 14, same thing, you know, how. Even when I started working, when I got to age 17, that’s right, when cell phones were really kind of starting to go out to the masses. I got my own cell phone, but I was 17 years old, and that’s when I had private conversations. Are you tracking with me? I hope so because that’s something that I’m sure that I’m not going to regret my decision. It’ll be different when they’re 16, I’m sure because there’s even more mature. They’re already freaking mature now, mentally speaking compared to most kids. I know I’m biased, but still, it’s because of these things. Get them started on electronics, cell phones, and smartphones early. Same with social media. I’ve talked about this before. 

They got accounts as a 13-year birthday gift. I know there’s parents that have 10-year-olds that have accounts and and Instagram and all that, but that’s not something that I ever have. As the Terms of Service say, you should be 13. That’s from Instagram, that’s from Facebook, whatever. So it’s going to be 13. So when they turn 13, they get Instagram accounts, and you know what? They’re doing a great job on there too. They’re within a level of maturity that I don’t see most adults have when it comes to social media. It’s pretty awesome. The biggest benefit that I’ve ever gotten out of starting them early with electronics is seeing all these amazing, amazing videos and photos that they took when they were young, from their perspective. And it’s so cool because you actually get to see and learn more about your kids when you see the types of photos that they took, of the types of things that they took them off, and the videos—the things that they found funny, the things that they found beautiful, the things that they found memorable. You get it; it’s like you learn them all over again, even beyond what you could have imagined when they start to show these things to you and share them with other people in the family. It’s been incredible, and I encourage you to do the same. I love you. Thank you for joining me. go all in with you.