Your thoughts on an iPod for a 9 year old?

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Hi, I have a daughter who turns 9 next week and wants an iPod touch. That’s the one with games, apps and a camera and touch screen. I was thinking of giving her an iPod Nano, which is mostly just music (no Internet, apps, touch screen…etc), but then she asked about the iPod “touch” before I could give her the simpler one.

What are your thoughts about an iPod (touch or regular) for a child turning 9? We most certainly have rules and restrictions in our house, and I would monitor and not allow many things…like shutting off the internet except when I load apps for her. But I also am aware kids have a way of figuring out how to do things we don’t want them too.

If not the iPod Touch, then the regular nano? Thoughts??

Thanks!!
Michelle
 
My kids have an iPod Touch and an iPad. I fully feel that they are wonderful educational tools. There are so many high-quality games available for every age group, as well as an endless supply of educational aps. Right now one of my kids is obsessed with reptiles and he has gotten so much enjoyment out of aps that teach about the different species. I don’t have a search engine or Youtube on the units, and only my husband and I have the PW to buy aps, so there is no way the kids can access inappropriate content. My two-year old loves it as much as my 12-year-old. With some reasonable oversight and guidelines, I think they are fantastic tools. Our Catholic school has iPod touches in the classrooms, so the kids need to know how to use them anyway.
 
Kraftster said:
Hi, I have a daughter who turns 9 next week and wants an iPod touch. That’s the one with games, apps and a camera and touch screen. I was thinking of giving her an iPod Nano, which is mostly just music (no Internet, apps, touch screen…etc), but then she asked about the iPod “touch” before I could give her the simpler one.

What are your thoughts about an iPod (touch or regular) for a child turning 9? We most certainly have rules and restrictions in our house, and I would monitor and not allow many things…like shutting off the internet except when I load apps for her. But I also am aware kids have a way of figuring out how to do things we don’t want them too.

If not the iPod Touch, then the regular nano? Thoughts??

Thanks!!
Michelle
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I love my IPod touch. I use it often and have over 3000 songs on it. I live in an area with no cell coverage and access the Internet through wifi on it. It can do most anything a PC can. I would get her a nice nano.
 
JackieMom said:
My two-year old loves it as much as my 12-year-old. With some reasonable oversight and guidelines, I think they are fantastic tools.
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Agree 👍

It is a bit pricey, but man do they use the heck out of it. My 9 year old has one and mainly uses it for music/games…but occasionally facetimes or texts a friend or 2. My older ones use it sometimes to watch Netfilx when the tv is tied up or read their ebooks. To be honest, I worry more about the interaction with other kids via text/instagram etc than I do about content. (Kids can just be mean, sometimes) But with reasonable monitoring/restrictions, I think it is a great tool. And I am all for letting the kids have access to (appropriate) technology.
 
My daughter and my niece, who are both 8, have iPod Touches. Parents can handle all the settings, and then give the iPod to their child with protections in place. Parents can also handle the purchasing of Apps. I would not just give the child the device and the account loaded with money and let them do as they please. But it can be made safe. And the positive thing is, I can use it as a reward for a good effort. As in, if you help mommy with a good attitude to accomplish such and such jobs, you can have such and such amount of time to play with your iPod Touch.
Also, it can be used to FaceTime with family cross-country, and can text to other Apple mobile devices, so our long-distance family gets an opportunity to stay in touch with my daughter (especially her grandparents and cousin).
 
We got a touch for out 8-year-old last Christmas. We have a lot things blocked via our firewall, so searching the internet is pretty hard. Any games she wants, she needs permission and one of us to imput the password. Same with music. It is also stored in our room, but that’s mostly to prevent her brothers from messing with it.

We only got her the touch because it was on sale. It’s the older genertion so Target was offering it for $150 with a $50 gift card to come with it. That took the price down to the Nano we were originally going to get her. She loves having her own music.
 
My daughter uses an Ipad and she is 6.5

Her school use them in lessons.

Its a great learning aid if used correctly and fun too!
 
If you let them take it to school, it will get lost, stolen, confiscated, or traded for a really neat sticker. I personally think it is a very extravagant gift, and I can predict any number of ways a child could get into trouble with one (especially with internet and texting), and I’ve never felt today’s kids were lacking for time to stare at a screen as it is. On the other hand, that sort of thing is nice to have around when you are trying to keep kids quiet on an airplane or in a waiting room. Eh. 🤷
 
I think it can be done, but of course it’s best done with proper boundaries and parental controls in place. I’m sure you know that already.

Personally, part of me still cringes at the thought of having such a piece of expensive technology in the house as belonging to my child rather than having it be a family one that the child simply uses. Maybe I’m just jealous because I didn’t have such neat “toys” growing up. :o

But in three years when my daughter is 9, who knows what Grandma and Grandpa will have gotten her by then. 😛
 
Allegra said:
If you let them take it to school, it will get lost, stolen, confiscated, or traded for a really neat sticker. I personally think it is a very extravagant gift, and I can predict any number of ways a child could get into trouble with one (especially with internet and texting), and I’ve never felt today’s kids were lacking for time to stare at a screen as it is. On the other hand, that sort of thing is nice to have around when you are trying to keep kids quiet on an airplane or in a waiting room. Eh. 🤷
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That’s somewhat how I feel. Though technically, my 4 year old is the proud owner of an iPad. But that’s because he’s autistic and there are loads of apps for that which are quite helpful. It’s not something I’d put in a kid’s hand and send them off to their room for hours on end. That’s where the boundaries come in.

It definitely does come in handy in waiting rooms (and getting him to sit still for taking pictures). 🙂
 
My 10 year old has an iPhone, and my 8 year old has a iPad mini. they are wonderful to let the kids play with when we need them to be settled down. the options are limitless on the games and educational apps you can download. We are also sure to make sure they put the electronics down and actually go out and play. As for them downloading content we don’t want them to, we don’t let them know the password to the appstore account, they have to ask for us to make any downloads.
 
My kids don’t “own” anything in our home. Anything is fair game for confiscation and parental oversight. All gifts have contingencies! And honestly… You can get an iPod Touch for $200-$250. Less expensive than a game console, a lot of sports equipment, musical instruments, etc. we buy for our kids.
 
Everything in moderation. Kids need to run and play, but in this day of technology, kids know how to use iPods, iPads and smart phones. If parents monitor the use and have parental controls in place and only parents have passwords to buy apps, I have no problems with them.

I am a grandma and have all of the above and I do monitor my 3 grandsons when they are with me. My grandsons are 10, 7 and 5. All of them know how to use them.
 
Kraftster said:
What are your thoughts about an iPod (touch or regular) for a child turning 9? We most certainly have rules and restrictions in our house, and I would monitor and not allow many things…like shutting off the internet except when I load apps for her. But I also am aware kids have a way of figuring out how to do things we don’t want them too.
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How much would you trust your daughter with the cash equivalent of an iPod, plus the cost of maintainence? Is the responsibility proportionate to her ability to handle it?
 
I am having the same issue! I am still undecided so I am following this thread closely.
 
Joe_5859 said:
I think it can

Personally, part of me still cringes at the thought of having such a piece of expensive technology in the house as belonging to my child rather than having it be a family one that the child simply uses. Maybe I’m just jealous because I didn’t have such neat “toys” growing up. :o

😛
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Hahahaha you have described the way I feel!!! Probably I am jealous too 😃
 
The kids love the camera feature on the Touch as well adding their favorite music. As a retired teacher, I certainly wouldn’t let her take it top school, because it will either be broken or stolen in a heartbeat. I think its an awesome gift for a nine year old. My grand nephews who are that age play Mine craft on theirs.😃
 
as long as it doesn’t lead into her (?) wanting a cell phone, I say an iPod touch is okay. You can use parental controls to block inappropriate apps and tv shows/movies and music.

It’d be good for long car or plane rides (there are many fun G rated apps)
 
If she wants full control then I would say the nano. If you get her touch then you need to monitor it.
 
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