Greater than two-fifths (42%) of kids have their very own phone by age 10.
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A top exec at South Korean tech giant Samsung said he didn’t give his daughter her own smartphone before she turned 11 years old.
“From my personal perspective, my daughter got a smartphone when she was 11,” James Kitto, vice chairman head of the MX Division for the U.K. and Ireland, told the BBC’s “Today” radio show Friday.
“I personally would not have given her one early, however it is a parental decision as to when you need to get your child a phone,” he said.
Plenty of oldsters are giving their children phones before then, in line with a 2021 study by review site Common Sense Media, which reported greater than two-fifths (42%) of kids have their very own phone by age 10.
That figure then increases to 71% by age 12 and by 14, it’s 91%.
“Whatever selection you make, and whatever age you make that selection in your child, it is necessary to be certain that, in the event that they are accessing the web, they’re accessing it in a secure way,” Kitto added.
All cell phone providers have free parental control features which may limit the content children can access through the web on their handsets, but these aren’t at all times mechanically switched on, in line with communications watchdog Ofcom.
Ready for a phone?
Deciding whether or not a baby is able to own a smartphone needs to be based on their very own development relatively than a particular age, in line with Megan Morena, a pediatrics professor on the University of Wisconsin.
“The present evidence doesn’t support a particular age at which a smartphone is or will not be beneficial,” Morena told CNBC.
“Using a milestone approach is probably going a greater option to assess a baby’s interest and readiness for a phone,” she said.
—CNBC’s Karen Gilchrist contributed to this report.
