Teens cannot be legally contracted to a phone plan so the vast majority use prepaids (sometimes the parents add their child to their own existing phone contracts). 

The advantage of prepaids is it limits the spending – once the credit runs out, more needs to be bought. It also teaches the responsibility of ownership.

Sending text messages is popular as it avoids high call rates. Just be wary as the number of texts which can be sent in a day can be in the hundreds!

Which is the best deal?  My recommendation is to purchase a phone connected to the network that the teen’s friends are using, as texts/calls between the same prepaid network are usually cheaper. An unlocked phone is recommended as it enables the user to change networks to follow the cheaper deals which appear regularly.

Anything done in excess may cause health problems, especially with growing bodies. Radiation from phones has always been a contentious issue – the jury is still out on that one.

 

Just remember that the home phone is always available to use, and the parents pay for that bill !