Well first of all, 12 isn't that young. He could understand it if he had to. Second, its kind of a great teaching opportunity. Why does he care what other kids think? Get him to try putting into words exactly what he thinks the iphone can do better. There's no time better than now to not get sucked into the consumerist bullshit signaling game of owning things for others to care about. It may hurt now, but not being a slave to marketing is a valuable lesson to impart.
You let your opinion known, he knows that you are against, so by yielding to his request you will show that his needs - as foolish as they may seem to you - are actually important to you.
Also, the fact that Apple and Google stores have different content is a very big issue for kids. Someone picks up a new game, comes to school, shows it off, everyone gets it, plays it for a day or a week, and then moves on to the next one. If your kid is on another store than doesn't have this game, he is excluded. Repeat this few times and this will leave a mark on him even without someone making fun of him because of that. And the Apple store does get better games first.
The adult product usually is the right one for kids. Most 'for kids' products aren't actually easier to use, and suck to administer (which falls on the parents.)
The problem is, if you send your kid to school with the latest iPhone, it gets jealous reactions from other kids.
Also, an expensive phone creates cognitive dissonance WRT allowances. My youngest gets $1.50/wk, which she budgets carefully to buy craft supplies. If I also get her a new $800 phone, the numbers seem out of whack. I can't give her a comparable number for allowance, because our house would overflow and she wouldn't learn to budget. So we give her our old ones when we upgrade.
It's a shame, because (as you say) younger people probably get more benefit from better tech.
Man, kids aren't stupid. They see a busted, slow old phone running 2 or more major versions of Android behind, that puts a bad taste in their mouth. Apple has made many deliberate steps to appeal to youth, iMessage playing some part, but that's not the whole picture.
Kids want something that works and is as fast as they are.
There's more to life than fitting in. Letting kids from spmenother family dictate what you spend your money on is lame.
As others have said, the issue is the kid's feelings and self confidence not actually technology. That applies to sideloading not being the point, but it also applies to switching to iphone not being the point.
The writer doesn't get that the iPod Touch is a gateway product for kids who aren't allowed to own an iPhone. Every kid who gets one for Christmas will buy an iPhone in the future. In many ways the Touch is like their version of the Nintendo DS.
Interesting. I've often considered an Apple Watch for my 9 year old, who struggles with (and benefits from) ADHD and thus would benefit from specific features such as the reminders (especially location-specific), alarms, and overall organization capabilities. But I'm hesitant to open that box just yet...
He isn't pining for a smart phone yet, nor do his friends seem to generally own them, so that wouldn't be the motivation but I can understand how it would be a good intermediate step. Gradually increasing access to these technologies and educating them along the way makes sense to me, rather than passing the child the firehose when they turn a certain magical age.
Very practical - don't give your <12yo child a tablet or smartphone. They're not necessary parts of human existence, and certainly not of a child's existence.
iPad's and iPhone's are not made for small children. People are being a little silly in demanding that Apple child proof their luxury brand gizmos.
Your child will not lose IQ points if he doesn't have a shiny iOS device to play with. Give him a book or puzzle to do like the rest of us had growing up. I promise you he'll turn out just fine.
Are you a child? From what I've heard, this is an extremely effective marketing strategy among children; kids get bullied and ostracized if they don't have an iDevice (in the US).
And if you captured the kids, that's the entire future market after a few generations.
Show them the money. Those features are undeveloped because they aren't valued enough. If more people wanted and used them, they'd develop them better.
Here's my favorite quote from the comments: "Simple solution, don't let your kids get their grubby paws on your phone. I have none of these issues as my kids are not allowed to touch my phone. They have their own electronic toys and iDevices to play with."
Yes, that's right, the best way to prevent kids from destroying expensive things is to not hand them to them. There are devices designed for children that have these protections and more.
At a family event recently, my 13 y.o. cousin was playing with his new iPod Touch. So I started asking him questions about it, and he tells me about how he's going to root it, going into some decent detail. I was pretty impressed! It just goes to show, Apple engineers can't keep kids from learning about their iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad, no matter how hard they try.
Without wanting to inject too hyperbolic a representation of Apple. Please don't buy kids iOS devices. There's nothing wrong from an application or usability perspective, it's just that restricting them to an extremely closed platform is likely to have future ramifications.
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