Suggestions for an iPad for our 7 year old to let them use for 1-2 hours a day to FaceTime their friends etc. Don’t expect to use it much beyond that.

I’d say no.

Unsupervised time is very bad for them. If the want to face time their friends after school then they can jus hang out after school in person.

The real problem is games on the iPad. Watching cartoons mainly wastes your time but playing games gives you tha stimulus+ response that rewires your brain. It is devastating to your minds. You literally cannot ban it enough. Watch a parent take away an iPad game from a toddler and you will see the same freak out as taking crack from a junkie.

They want the iPad for the same reason they want junk food. The very fact they are so desperate is why you have to say no.

look everyone can raise their own kids but I wouldn’t be giving my children an iPad for that long per day. if you so desire, given their age, I’d just buy the cheapest one.

I do have an iPad for my 6 year old. We use it to FaceTime family. It’s also great for games & to watch movies while traveling. I do have a timer set—so he cannot use it more than 1 hour per day.

That’s a really large amount of daily screen time for a child this age. They’re already with their friends at school all day, and hours more on a screen isn’t necessary or healthy.

As well, I don’t let my son use tech without me in the room. The stats on kids stumbling into inappropriate content is tremendous, even with all the controls. And realistically, no parent is sitting next to a 7-year-old for 1–2 hours straight on FaceTime. The main tip from all online safety forums for children is no unsupervised time on tech. My son was watching Ms. Rachel with me right next to him and the most horrific horror movie advertisement came on the ad break and I was shaken. Who knows what else they put there that my son is innocently consuming.

Not saying this to shame. Just offering perspective from the kids/developmental/online safety side.

I heard that you can do FaceTime on the Bark Phone, which has probably the best parental controls on a smartphone. I haven’t tested it myself though.

One of my kids got a used iPad mini on ebay for $250 that was in fantastic shape, or we got one of my other kids an iPad for $100 as a special deal from verizon when we upgraded my phone a few years ago. Better yet, can they use Messenger Kids to talk to their friends? You can do that on a Kindle and those are really affordable, especially on black friday or Prime Days. Just make sure you have parental controls on whatever it is you give them. The internet is a scary place. My kids spend more time than they probably should online, but I try to keep a really close eye on who they're playing with. I do allow it so much because of the social aspect. I used to talk on the phone with my friends for hours in middle school. My kids talk to their friends while playing video games together.

We upgraded our own older iPads and gave the kids our old ones. We set up new Apple accounts for the kids inside our “Family” so we have complete control over their apps and usage.

You do you. The other parents here aren’t wrong, but you’re the best judge of what works for your kids and family. Our kids are allowed some screen time every day in this controlled environment. They do not have access to any social media.

1-2 hours is a lot. I mean think about what it would be like to come home from school and then sit on an iPad for 2 hours - no kid is FaceTiming that long at that age unless they’re minimizing the window and also playing Roblox or something.

We got our kids Amazon Fire tablets. It’s set up for the Amazon Kids ecosystem where they can only access content for the age range you set and you can set time limits on how long and when they can use them. You can’t get FaceTime on it, but a lot of kids use Messenger Kids, which is available on it.

Sheesh, I was not expecting such a harsh response in these comments! While I agree, 2 hours is probably a lot, and you definitely have to monitor usage (I think any electronic is really a ‘family’ device, aka you can’t take it to your room and no headphones, I would never tell my kid it is ‘their’ iPad) I disagree that you shouldn’t give your kid an iPad at all. Kids are SO much more exposed to technology than we are and I think teaching them boundaries and healthy usage now will likely serve them better in the long run. Hello, think of all the things we were banned from and then went crazy with once we were away from our parents! So yeah, militant monitoring and outright bans do not work in my mind.
But to answer your question, I second the person who said to check eBay. I would not bother spending on the markup of a new iPad. I would do an Air, or even that like 2019 version full sized iPad, I think it was 2019… but those are solid. And no cellular on it, just WiFi. You can still buy cases for pretty much any iPad on Amazon these days as well. FaceTime can be handled with any iPad but I like to have the option to add a movie or a game for a long trip. Good luck!

No judgment but other parents aren’t going to let their kids FaceTime their friends for two hours a day so I would just save my money. Mine are 8.5 and almost 7 and they have no access to their iPads unless we are traveling. They can turn on the TV and watch a movie with our permission and that is the extent of our screen time.

That’s way too much time. If they need to have calls then a parent should be supervising and you can just use whatever iPad or phone you yourself use and take it away at the end.

My 7 year old doesn’t need to FaceTime their friends- between school and after school activities it’s plenty of socialization.

Further - none of their peers have phones/iPads so no one to even call.

Are they homeschooled/not in activities?

Just get the normal iPad. Lock it down with a passcode so they can’t use it without your permission (don’t tell them the code!) or download random apps without your approval (sent to your phone). I do not like apps with ads. My kids do some class work on the app, listen to music or podcasts, and have some educational apps like Khan Academy and occasional games. We also use it for flights with downloaded videos. We put it away during the week so out of sight out of mind, I’d prefer they watch tv over iPad use.