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Would You Let Your Kids Bring a Cell Phone to Summer Camp?

June 26, 2012
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© iStockphoto

Aside from packing sunscreen and swimsuits for camp, will your child be packing a cell phone? Mashable reports that some camps maintain a no-electronics policy—and it's parents, not the kids, who are breaking the rules.

Plus: Should There Be a Facebook for Kids Under 13?

Louis Bordman, the senior director of Eisner Camp in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, said that electronic devices are banned because they take away from the social growth kids learn at camp. "If each camper is sitting on his or her bed involved in a video game or texting friends from home, then they’re not engaging with the world around them," said Bordman.

Bordman said that while most parents are on board with this, others aren't so much. He has seen parents send their kids to camp with two phones: one as a decoy that the child turns in the first day, with the other hidden for covert calls and texting—not to friends, but to the parents, so they can check in with their kid.

Plus: What's The Best Age to Get Your Kid a Cell Phone?

Do you agree with the no cell phone rules at camp? Does your kid's camp allow cell phones?

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