Is It Really Smart to Give Kids Your Old Smartphone?

By Caroline Knorr
January 20, 2011

Hand-Me-Down Tech May Give Kids More Than You Bargained For
How to Manage Your Device's Second Life


I'm the baby of my family, so I was the one who got the hand-me-downs. Nearly every winter coat and pair of snow boots passed from my brother to my sister to me. And while I can't say I loved a certain threadbare, brown corduroy jacket, it kept me warm, and it sure helped me understand the value of a dollar.

Today's kids still get secondhand stuff, but when it comes to high-tech devices, "previously owned" can be very advanced. Once kids get a taste of a maybe-not-the-latest-but-still-pretty-cool device, it's a quick jump to the stuff that younger ones may not be ready for, like social networking, massively multiplayer online games, video chatting, and location services. But that's hard to explain when they've just received the device that gives them entrée into that world -- from you.

I'm not pointing fingers, because we do it in our family, too.

My husband's old iPod Touch became my son's when hubby moved up to a smartphone with a built-in MP3 player. My son was 11 and just getting into the Beatles, and we were more than happy to foster his love of great music.

But it wasn't long before we realized that we hadn't even scratched the surface of what the Touch could do. Of course, my son was all too eager to maximize the device's capabilities by watching TV on it. Who knew?

Lots of families pass along their used devices to their kids. Sometimes it just makes sense, and in some cases, it's cost effective. But it's important to remember that these are very powerful devices that aren't necessarily designed with kids in mind.

Here are four lessons -- which I learned the hard way -- on how to smoothly transition your old device so you can focus on what's really important: playing with your new one!

Please read full article HERE

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