I bought her a first phone (Moto Play for basically free 99 with incentives) a few months before she turned 15. She had that phone for a few months before she dropped it one too many times. I wasn't keen on buying her a new phone since she hadn't taken great care of the old one. And she wanted an iPhone because "teen girl." She was lucky enough that her uncle had a spare he wasn't using and he just gave it to her. It's an older model and kind of fussy, and she wanted to upgrade it. So she asked us to loan her the money to buy a newer iPhone that she found on Facebook barely or non-used. It was a great deal and she had to act quickly before it sold. And we told her no.

That led to some frustration at us because she didn't understand why we wouldn't let her pay us back, and we explained how A. she doesn't need a new phone. B. she can't afford because doesn't have the money C. she needs to learn to save for things D. it's unwise at her age to spend all of her money on a phone and not be able to do anything else. E. she doesn't want us constantly nagging her about paying us back F. New premium phones are for people who can buy them and not sweat the money, not teenagers or anyone who needs to make payments in order to afford it. And so on...

Thankfully, she understood and backed down. She wasn't happy about it, but hopefully she learned a good lesson. Meanwhile my 14 year old has a moto Play phone, and couldn't care less about the make or model.

(Oh, and neither of them have social media and my son's phone is locked down tight.)