We last had a thread on this topic in June of last year, and there were some interesting responses, from technophobes arguing "basically never" to technophiles finding anything as young as 3 acceptable. At this point, it is impossible to argue that cell phones have not greatly modified our Western society, and they are starting to pervade in less-developed countries such as India and some African countries now as well. People in favour of giving children cell phones early point to advantages of staying connected, though people on the other side view many of those advantages as disadvantages, noting decreased face-to-face social time and the problems posed by unrestricted Internet access.
I am more on the side of the technophobes myself. An eight-year-old is almost certainly too immature to use such a device responsibly, especially considering the extent of all kinds of nasty stuff on the Internet (pornography, scams/phishing, and extremely violent games, for example), and considering even grown adults up to their 70s often have problems with addiction to their phones, it doesn't make sense to me to start kids down that path that early. (Then again, I had my first computer of my own, which was a really old laptop that was really cool to me at the time, but still very primitive, the summer before second grade. I don't even think it had Internet access, and I ended up rendering it unusable in about three months anyway as I compressed a bunch of system files, not knowing what I was doing, and wrecked it for myself. I'm also one to talk about seeing bad stuff online, as I learned swear words from the Internet at age eight, and walked into fourth grade armed with a whole bunch of words I had now been turned on to, but thankfully knew better than to use around adults. I even kept a spreadsheet ranking the words I found most offensive, with the "F" word in second or third place behind "oh my God".)
A cell phone can be a useful tool; it can also be a highly addictive substance with deleterious effects on its heaviest users, which I see a lot of in today's society. When I was in elementary school, I saw another kid's phone out once at best in all five years. In middle and high school, however, they were everywhere, and I often found it hard to carry on a conversation with people because the majority of their focus was on whatever they were doing on that screen: playing a game, texting/messaging, etc. It drove me nuts! I saw my generation as a whole transform basically from children into phone zombies, barely being able to make it five minutes in a conversation without pulling it out and texting someone, and no wonder my generation is so anxious and neurotic now. Our social lives are based on the number of likes we get from posts on Instagram!
Given my own experiences on the matter, I don't think it's prudent to give a kid a cell phone at an age of single digits certainly. I still see cell phones, particularly smartphones, as a want instead of a need, so my policy would probably be along the lines of "when you can pay for it yourself". If my 17-year-old wants one and can pay for one with minimal financial assistance, I'd be likely to let him or her buy one, though I would not force one on him or her if she did not want one. If my 11-year-old comes up to me with the "...but all of my friends have one!" excuse and nothing else, I'd take that a sign that he or she is still to young to have one. The "emergency contact" line is referencing events that are extremely rare in First World societies, especially before one starts driving him/herself around to and from places; besides, in my area, virtually every classroom still has a telephone in it anyway, and most teachers would, if something happens or a student needs get a ride home now, be more than happy to let a student use their phone. That's what worked for me just fine, even in high school.
Also keep in mind that prior to 1983 there literally were not commercially available cell phones, and they were still pretty rare in the hands of everyday people until the mid-90s. Most of us who were around in the 60s and 70s made it through those decades just fine without cell phones.
What say ye, NSG?
