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Parenting: Should You Give Smartphone to Your Teenage child?

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Q. My son is 12 years and he is asking for a phone. I am worried that it would further decrease his focus and concentration. But, he says most of his classmates already have phones. Please advise. - Madhu, Jaipur

Ans. Though providing a cell phone to our teens is not a good idea on a biochemical level but it has become a necessary evil. When both parents work and kids hop between classes, it's important to be in touch, be informed about their activities and most importantly, for their safety.

Increased use of cellphones can cause moodiness, poor academic performance and iaddiction to phone. Anxiety, like depression is also a frequent problem reported from adolescents into excessive usage of phones and gadgets. So, it's noteworthy that while giving a cellophone is a necessity, monitoring and guiding children to balance the use of it is equally important if they are to be safeguarded physiologically, psychologically and socially.

Though peer pressures could be mindset altering, yet with a good cohesiveness and open communication channels in a family , it can be positively mounded. A parent should lay practical family specific guidelines around efficient usage of phone and fix deadlines around its usage too.

Personally, I believe that its to be looked upon not as a problem but an opportunity to understand how your young adult would behave in the wake of exposure to all that life lures with... Ensuring that it should not be something that our teens should be punished around but as something where our kids need help in order to stay balanced, well rounded and responsibly less isolated adults.