[Lainskii]

What age do you think is appropriate to let a child have an mp3 player (like and ipod)?

DD (2.5) asked me what my old ipod mini was (I use it to exercise) and I explained and then let her listen to it with the headphones (made sure it wasn't very loud)

She asked if she could listen to some different songs and then wanted more.

I realise that she is too young to have one but it got me thinking at what age we should let her have one.

[Chubbles]

My 3 and 5 year old got an iPod at Christmas.

[Carabosse]

Mine had them by 3. We started with kid headphones that were volume limited. They mainly use them in the car on long trips but occaisionally just for a chillout!
They now have our old iphone 3s (not as phones obviously) and the main issue is remembering to charge them

This post has been edited by Carabosse: 28/02/2013, 09:45 PM

[frozie]

DD got an iPod when she was about 2.5 due to fact that she was always stealing her older brothers to listen to and play with. She loved grooving around to the music.

So to answer your question, I don't think your daughter is too young. You could always get her an ipod mini to start with.

[hidingaway]

My mum bought my DD an mp3 player (sony walkman) when she was about 12 months old. The one DD has has inbuilt speakers, so when we were going away on holidays, I could take her music that I play at bed time with us, and put the mp3 player next to her portacot.
She is at the age now (about 2 and a half) where I would be happy to let her use volume limited headphones (not the ear plug ones) for a short amount of time.

[Puggle]

My kids got basic MP3 players with volume limited headphones for Christmas last year, so aged 7 and 4.

I ended up getting them each a Sansa Clip which is an older model MP3 player but got better reviews on Amazon than the newer model. The only real kicker was I had to buy the gel cases for $10 each on ebay because the seller of the $0.50 gel cases on Amazon wouldn't ship to Australia. Very basic little players but I wanted them to start with just audio to being with. We use them on long car trips but DD2 often listens at home too. They both have combinations of audio books and music.

This post has been edited by Puggle: 28/02/2013, 10:03 PM

[Lainskii]

Thanks for replies, thinking I might let her use one when we go on a long car trip in a few months.

Are volume limiting headphones available in places like JB Hi-Fi & d*ck smith or do you need to order them?

[~Supernova~]

DD8 doesn't have one. It's not because I have an issue with them. she is just happy dancing around to her CD player, so I don't see the point yet (well except that I have to listen to One Direction and Justin Bieber excessively LOL). DS loves dancing with her too, so I don't want her holing herself up in her room plugged into her own little world just yet.

[JustBeige]

our kids got Shuffles when they were 9. The thing I like about the Shuffles is that you can change the volume level on the player itself via the computer and they cant change it back, so if they happen to "lose" their noise limiting headphones then they still arent hurting their hearing.

the second thing I liked was that you can only add songs via itunes, so I had complete control over the type of music that they had access to - I still do and they are now tweens.

the 3rd thing I like is that there is no pictures. so they dont get to see the mostly incredibly inappropriate imagery that is called music videos these days.

This post has been edited by JustBeige: 01/03/2013, 06:22 AM

[Julie3Girls]

You can get the volume limited kids headphones from heaps of places ... Got my girls ones from big w, lovely bright pink and bright blue, volume limited. Think they were moshi brand

As for age, my oldest got an MP3 player at age 10. Dd2 got hers at the same time age 8.

Before that, they had access to the CD player and would dance and listen to music that way. Dd1 was never really fussed to have an mp 3 player at all.

Then a year later I upgraded the older two girls to an iPod touch. Dd2 had been asking, so I decided to let them. Dd3 is 6 and she inherited the MP3 player. I didn't want to give her unrestricted access to an iPod as she isn't good at self moderating, and still so young. My concern wasn't the music though, it was the eyesight issue. When they are still so young, having unlimited access to an iPod with the small screen and games, I was concerned about damage to her eyesight. Which I got from the ophthalmologist who is seeing a huge increase in eyesight issue in young kids lately and suspects a link to the increase in very young kids spending a lot of time with small screened electronic devises.

This post has been edited by Julie3Girls: 01/03/2013, 06:20 AM