Teenager Gets iPhone, 18-Point Contract From Mom To Go With It [Video]
Cape Cod, MA – Thirteen-year-old Greg Hoffman was begging his parents for an iPhone all year. When he finally opened one on Christmas morning, it came with a secondary gift: An 18-point contract written by his mother that Hoffman had to agree to before he could keep the phone.
The 18-point set of terms and conditions is more or less what you might expect from a mom who has agreed to give a 13-year-old boy an iPhone as a gift. Janell Hoffman, a blogger and mother of five, wanted to make sure that Greg didn’t become an iPhone zombie like so many teenagers nowadays, but MSN Now notes that some of the rules she set in place may prevent Greg from enjoying his iPhone at all.
Some of the terms: The phone is actually hers, no calls or texts after 7:30pm, no “sexting,” use your manners, don’t ignore phone calls from Mom and Dad, and do things that a normal 13-year-old boy from the 1950s should be doing. “Stare out a window. Listen to the birds. Take a walk. Talk to a stranger. Wonder without Googling,” One of the 18-point terms and conditions reads.
Teen behavior expert Josh Shipp says that a set of rules is actually a good thing to give a teenager along with an iPhone.
“You wouldn’t’ give your kid a car without making sure they had insurance,” said Shipp. “And so giving them a cell phone or a computer without teaching them how to use it responsibly is irresponsible on the part of the parent.”
You can read all of the 18-point terms and conditions at Janell Hoffman’s blog, here.
What do you think? Should an iPhone come with parental guidelines?
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