To be fair depending on the circumstances of the parents it could make sense to give your kid a phone simply so that you can contact them. For example, my aunt was a single mother who often worked odd hours and she gave her child a phone just so she'd be able to contact her directly if she needed to. However, it's completely ridiculous to give your 7 year old child an expensive smartphone. A Nokia 3310 should suffice if need be

I agree with #6 all the way, I don't honestly believe that 6/7 year olds should have such phones just for the need of emergencies. And besides, because they're so young, they're more susceptible to give away the phone, drop and break it, lose it, etc. Like #6, a cheap phone capable of making calls and text should be quite efficient for that age group. Just putting my opinion out there

Just because one 6th grader had a phone doesnt mean they all do nowadays

I agree, a little flip phone or something is all they need, I'm in collage and my parents are still yet to buy me any phone

Kid is in grade 1, not 6 19

I agree, maybe that child takes public transportation or has a need for it. However there is no reason that they should have had it out in a place where the teacher needed to confiscate it. I had a phone for emergencies (though not till later), and it stayed in my bag until I needed to let my mom know I was leaving, or got to my destination safely. Sigh. Kids these days.

A first grader can be aged 6-7

When I was six my dad bought me and my brother cell phones because he thought my mom wouldn't let us talk to him after they divorced. (Not that she would ever do such a thing).

my daughter (7) has one so she can talk/Skype with her mother in between visiting her on holidays/summer. it's a nice phone..a galaxy s5 I think that her mom bought her. it works out nice but she doesn't get it during school or if she's in trouble.

Just because a smart phone can be considered "expensive" doesn't mean that's how much was spent. I got my daughter a smart phone when she was 10. (She is now 13) It cost $100. to get because of a two year contract promotion with AT&T. I remember people criticizing me that they all thought she was too young at the time. Don't know why so many care-- it's not your money or your child! She has shown me that she's responsible and never once lost or damaged it. Bonus: We are in constant contact with each other. Also I know some parents upgrade their phones and pass their older ones down to their kids.

My little brother just started 1st grade and he's still five, so I guess 5-7? This was a reply to something I don't see now...

My smart phone cost # $1.00...

There's good things that come out of children having these kind of phones. Say they get lost, you can track the phone to their location (Unless they drop it when they have it), they can be used as calculators, and some schools use this technology for in class projects. So there's some good that comes out if. But, I guess I'm just being an optimist.

#52 you really think it only set you back a dollar? Your plan and contract is paying for the phone.

Learning to spell college would probably save the college student from some downvotes.

Chances are it was a hand-me-down phone from the parent after they got a new one. And where I love (Canada) my niece just started jr. Kindergarten at age 4 for ages 4-5, so senior kindergarten would be age 5-6 and grade 1 could be age 6-7 so yes age 6-7 in grade 1 is possible.

It can be multiple ages, really, depending on when a person's birthday is and what time of the year it is. To be more simple, kids (generally) start first grade on the September of the year they turn 6. So, if you're born in 2002, your first grade school year would be 2008-2009.

I got a blackberry when I was 6 do I could txt my friends I went to a private school but everyone had a phone back then

Pretty much any phone has a calculator. My $30 prepay had one.

I just got a phone last year. with Stealthgenie on it. I'm almost 18. It kinda sucks.

It might've been their parents old phone. I had a crap phone for awhile, when I was in grade four. Because my mom is a single mom, and I stayed home alone for hours and over night. Now I have her old phone, because she wanted the samsung 5s

That's not how u use a hashtag

Yeah, I have no idea what a first grader does with a phone. I got my first phone in fourth grade, but I didn't even touch it until atleast seventh grade

No Nokia. She would destroy the school.

Totally agreed! Didn't have a cellphone till I was in the 5th grade haha.

Maybe it's a lego phone. Only intensifies the FML.

I wish there was a Lego phone...

Implying that children don't have legos anymore?

Spoiled brats these days. Bright side while the kid is walking and on his phone, throw some of your Legos out so he can step on them. :).

Pretty sure the word "day" was omitted.

That would've been "someday".

I hope it's not an English teacher....

First grade teachers generally teach all or almost all subjects.

I typed this fairly late at night, if I remember correctly. I probably made a stupid grammatical or spelling error, and unless I'm not seeing it, it has been fixed. Actually, I don't teach English. I teach in a departmentalized school, so I teach three sections of reading. Another teacher teaches Language Arts/Science/Social Studies, and a third teacher teaches math.

Also, please keep in mind that teachers are humans. After waking up at 5 AM to be at my school at 5:45, my brain was a little spacy after I was finally able to leave at 7:00 that night.

You typed "come close to affording one," but it was corrected after a while. Anyone can make a mistake, but it's hard to resist when a teacher makes one on FML :)

Glitzy cell-phones are pretty cheap these days. Some of the small Android phones are only a few hundred dollars (Xperia Z3 Compact comes to mind).

when I was in first grade you needed a bag to carry around your cell phone. car phones where even a thing they were pretty much the size of a cars center console.

I love how "a few hundred dollars" classifies as "cheap" today. Can you throw a few hundred dollars my way, because I don't have the luxury of obtaining "cheap" phones.

It is defiantly not someone life savings. Unless you work minimum wage.

*definitely. And I have a fairly decent job, but that doesn't mean I can afford to spend hundreds on a phone. With utilities, car payments, food, gas, and insurance I barely have anything left. And I don't pay rent/mortgage. I don't know how people afford homes along with everything else AND have kids. It's crazy.

They use credit, because spending money you don't really have is always smart.

If a few hundred dollars is to expensive for a necessity like a phone, you've got problems. Also if you get one of those scammy contracts (like everyone does these days), it's absolutely free*!

Actually, you can get phones for as little as $20, so yeah, people don't have to spend hundreds on a necessity.

86. Wait since when is a smartphone a necessity?

Op specified it was something they couldn't afford, on contract, the iphone 6 is 215.99 for a 2 year contract, OR it costs state sales tax on 649.99 up front and 27.09 a month extra on your bill... some of us do have difficulty paying that if we have other things to finance, such as kids, medical bills, etc. I have had parents buy their kids iphone 5c's and 5s's before the six came out available to preorder... it's a status symbol for a lot of kids now a days.

Probably to make phone calls and contact their parents....

I think a lot of parents like their kids to have a phone for the gps on it and probably to call their parents (speedial probably) if they missed the bus. Those are probably the only reasons the kid has a phone. I know my sister in law who does daycare went to pick up their daycare kid off the bus and he wasn't there, they found out he got on the bus to go to his own house (instead of daycare) and the bus didn't let him off and drove him back to the school, but there were a few minutes where neither my sister nor the parents knew where there kid was. I think parents like a phone on their kid for this reason.

** Sorry, my edit ran out. He got on the wrong bus, the one that would take him to his house, instead of the bus that would take him to daycare. In case that wasn't clear. Luckily the bus driver wouldn't let him off because there was no guardian at the stop. He was in kindergarten

Yo Gabba-Gabba, hold on Dora's calling. Thank you Carlos Mencia.

I work in a low-income school. Very rarely do we have students who have OLD (think Nokia brick) cellphones that are deactivated so that they can call the police if necessary. These students are usually our 4th & 5th graders who may be involved with activities after school. Occasionally we will have a student with one of those "cellphones" that can only be used to contact parents & police. Otherwise, this was a rarity.

I would never have brought an ipad or a lap top to use at school, if they want me to use ipads or lap tops, they should provide them. I pay fees to go to school, shouldn't have to spend a few hundred dollars to get things like that as well

Well we have tony abbot he's a retard.

At my school, every junior and senior gets a school owned iPad to borrow for the year. It's just wrong if having an iPad or laptop is required for your education because some people simply can't afford it.

My daughter types all her assignments/reports on her "notes" section of her iPhone, edits it/ copy and paste, emails it to herself and then prints it off the computer. Learning how to use technology is helping your education. js

And if she had an Android, she could do all of that without emailing herself. JS :P

In first grade the kid didn't get a phone because he wanted it, he got it because his parents wanted him to have it, either for safety or because it's an easy way to get a child to sit still and be quiet. So it shouldn't be "kids these days", but "parents these days".

48 You can with an iPhone too. Maybe she just wants an email copy.

#48 you can do that with an iPhone too with a wifi capable printer.

43- I bet that is formatted great lol.

Probably a 6 year old actually. Even worse though.