Mom Writes Phone Contract for Middle School Son

Note: Please check out my Digital Contracts and Agreements Page if you want to learn more about this topic.

Take a look at a terrific letter about cell phone conduct, appropriately written for a middle or high school age student. In a Huffington Post article, To My 13-Year-Old, An iPhone Contract From Your Mom, With Love, Janet Burley Hoffman shares a mobile phone contract that she wrote for her son after giving him a cell phone for Christmas. The post also includes a link to a video of Hoffman and her son appearing on “Good Morning America.”

This piece is cleverly written, focusing on cell phone issues that worry many parents of pre-adolescent and adolescent children. Hoffman’s contract addresses, in non-lecture style, the concerns that arise especially as parents watch their children using digital devices.

Last fall, my post, So You Want a Family Digital Device Contract or Agreement, included links to a broad range of web resources that can help parents set up contracts or agreements with their digital kids.

Interesting Ideas that Janet Burley Hoffman Incorporated into This Contract

1. Parents own and pay for the phone and then loan it to a child.
2. After a certain time each evening phones are put away, and they “go to bed” in the evening, just like people do.
3. One doesn’t always need have to have a phone — it’s possible to feel safe without it.
4. The rich experiences of everyday life may be less rich if a person spends too much time documenting them in pictures and video.

I’ll be adding this to my collection of digital device contract links.

My thanks to the Center for Media and Child Health Facebook page for alerting me to this article.  If you want to learn lots more about writing family digital use agreements, please check out my Digital Contracts and Agreements Page.