How old should a kid be before he gets an ipod

What more could Apple do? They've given you a Nano, a shuffle, and the touch. If the child is old enough to be responsible with an electronic device, I would think he/she is old enough for an iPod. My 16 yo has had iPods since she was about 11. I bought my granddaughter one for her 10th birthday. If you're willing to control the content, then he is old enough. However, be aware that once he figures out how to install his own content, you will have to accept it. You can control the video content of video iPods. That's what I would be concerned about. But now that there are parental controls on video content, you still retain control.

Hi,

A lot depends on the kid, I think. If he's generally responsible and takes care of things he recognizes as being expensive, then he's probably OK for an iPod. If you still have reservations, you can go for the shuffle. It's relatively inexpensive, just in case there should be any accidents. It only holds audio content so you don't need to worry about video content concerns. And, in being concerned about content overall, in order to put music on a shuffle one needs to first erase the music that was put on it from a different computer.

CG

It depends what your concern is: whether you think he's not responsable enough to own an expensive device (in which case a shuffle would be a good idea), or that he might see innapropriate content (in which case a touch would be a bad idea as he could pick up a wireless connection). Note that there are parental controls in iTunes.

I'm only 13 yrs old and I won an 512MB iPod Shuffle back in 2005 and it worked until yesterday when my brother dropped in a puddle rendering it useless. I use my iPod touch 8GB daily for music and a PDA. I have it when i turned 11 and have never tooken it out of the rubber case i bought for it the day i got it.
I also suggest getting an Apple Care Plan incase somthing goes wrong. I just so happy Apple released a new iPod touch with a speaker and more so that is what I am saving up for and am looking foward to getting the new Touch in November.

Lots of people have wrote about the content which I completely agree with. But, how about starting him off with somthing a little more cheaper, like a Sandisk Sansa. I had one before my iPod because I didnt have money for an iPod. It worked wonderfull, so I would consider testing him with one of those. If he takes good care of that and is responsable, I would then consider an iPod.

Just a teacher's perspective, but when I taught 7th grade, VERY few kids had iPods (granted, I teach in low income). The ones that did got them stolen rather fast. They got them in 8th grade usually and it quickly became a nuisance either from theft or from listening to them during class (I has quite a collection of Nanos...). An iPod, imo, is more of a high school gift. But I'm a teacher who would rather that students were learning their "R's" than the lyrics to their favorite songs...

My 7 year old son wants an iPod too. My 5 year old hasn't expressed any such interest. I can't believe that my 7 year old is really going to use the thing much seeing how he hasn't expressed a lot of interest in music (he likes music, of course, but it's not something he's clamoring for.) I think he wants one because his similar age cousins got them for their birthdays and because it's a gadget and he's come to love gadgets because, well, I love them. 🙂 Fortunately what his cousins have gotten are iPod shuffles and so that's what he wants. I really can't see getting him an iPod nano or higher. Actually he'd probably use the nano more, but just because it has games on it. Given that, I'd rather get him a shuffle and a game for his Nintendo DS. Perhaps having a shuffle will get him more interested in music. So, I think it's at least harmless enough, and the shuffle, especially a refurb shuffle, isn't a lot of money.

However, if your child does have a lot of interest in music, then I think it could be a good idea, and in that case a nano could be a good choice. One nice thing about the iPods is that you can set a volume limit - the one thing I'd worry about is them playing the music too loud, so the volume limit (which can be password blocked), is a good thing. I'm pretty sure the iPod shuffle has a volume limit option too, but I don't actually know how that works. Do you set it in iTunes? On the iPod nano and higher you set it on the iPod.

Yes, the Volume Limit is available for the Shuffle, through iTunes. And I certainly agree with you that it's a great feature, especially for an iPod that's been given to a child.

CG