It’s one of the biggest and most pressing questions the parents of a pre-teen face nowadays and Prince William has revealed that he and the Princess of Wales are currently struggling with it.
William and Kate’s eldest son, Prince George, is now 12 and like many of his peers, there’s one thing he really, really wants – a phone of his own.
However, the Prince and Princess of Wales have decided to go down the no phone route – although a change might be imminent.
Speaking during an interview given while he was in Brazil for the Earthshot Prize and the COP30 Heads of State meeting, William revealed that none of his three children have phones.
However, he said that George might get a phone in the very near future. William said ”when George moves onto secondary school, maybe he’ll have one with limited access.”
Prince George is set to leave Lambrook Preparatory School in the summer, just as he turns 13. At that stage, he’ll move on to secondary education with Eton among the favourite schools for the second in line to the throne to attend.
At that point, William and Kate might consider a phone with the Prince saying they can have benefits for communication.
However, like all parents, he and Kate have concerns about the huge amount of material available online and the way often unsuitable content escapes censure online.
William said in the interview that he and the Princess of Wales like to be open with their children and discuss everything with them in an appropriate manner. This included the cancer diagnosis the Princess of Wales received and the preventative chemotherapy that she went through in 2024.
He added ”there’s no rulebook for being a parent, and we chose to talk about everything.”
As Prince George approaches becoming a teenager, he’s had some other royal changes. At the weekend, he attended the Festival of Remembrance for the first time, arriving with his mum, the Princess of Wales.
In May this year, he accompanied both his parents to the reception held at Buckingham Palace for VE Day veterans.
Earlier, on the 80th anniversary of VE Day, he also had to deal with a very regular big brother problem. As he adjusted his hair, it appeared that his little brother, Prince Louis, made a jokey gesture of imitation. George did what all big brothers do – he just looked away.
