If you know lots of 7-year-olds, how many of them have their own phone? (the Wheel spoiler)

[IdaPrentice]

Watching the Wheel tonight, and one question was, at what age do the majority of children have their own phone. The answer was age 7. I was really surprised (and appalled). But my kids are older, so maybe I'm out of touch. Is this really true, in your experience? What percentage of the 7 yr olds you know have their own phone?

I would have guessed age 11, by the way.

My seven year doesn't

10 year old ds does

I don’t know any 7 year olds with their own phone that they can use for calls etc. I do know a couple who use their parents’ old phones for gaming etc, as a cheaper option than a tablet. Those phones don’t leave the house though.

Surely it will be including old phones used for games. A lot of children have these from around 3. They often have them for their sole use if they're the eldest or only child and then once you have two kids they fight over it so they end up with one each. Old phones are ten a penny. We have about five just hanging around doing nothing.

I think both DS1 and DS2 have had this and DS3 is getting close to it. They don't have access to it at all times. But it is essentially "theirs" because nobody else uses that device. I think this is pretty much the same as letting a young child play games on a family computer, console, tablet.

I have a soon to be 7 year old, and an 8 & 9 year old. None have phones & wont be until secondary school at the earliest if needed. A few kids in Ds9’s class have phones and plenty do in yr5 & 6. Lots of bullying, arguments from stuff on them in group
chats too, and posting on TikTok I’m hoping to hang out as long as possible. I’m surprised but not surprised.

Our eight year old does, its his Papas old phone to play certain games on, his tablet broke, so it was a cheaper option than buying another tablet.

Ime having a phone means 2 different things.

Younger children have a "phone" as a mini tablet. Its just fir games etc, no SIM.
Then around 7/8ish you get a few who have a SIM card... usually divorced parents, so its contact between parents and siblings.

An actual functional phone is around 10ish.

Here's a link to the survey

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jan/30/most-children-own-mobile-phone-by-age-of-seven-study-finds#:~:text=The%20majority%20of%20children%20own,with%20it%20by%20their%20bed.

It's actually 4 years old so almost certainly gone up!

Primary school teachers are finding children turning up in Reception who don't know how to turn pages of a book.

In my DDs year 3 class there is chat about phones but only a few actually have one. None of her friends do, and won't for a while according to the parents.

I have a nine year old and don’t think any of his classmates have phones. Most people round here seem to try to hold out until secondary.

I have an 8 year old and am a Brownie volunteer. I spend lots of time with children aged 8-10. None of them mention having a phone.

This caused a big conversation on our class WhatsApp tonight after this question. The conclusion was none of the 7 year olds have phones. They may use a parents phone occasionally for games etc.... but none actually have their own phones. No 7 year old needs a phone, it is a ridiculous thing to give a 7 year old. And with all the knowledge we have now about how damaging they are to teens etc.... why would you give a child a phone at this young age.

I'm very dubious of surveys like this. We used to do some similar ones periodically throughout my school years and most of us made stuff up and lied.

The report didn't survey that many children either by the looks of it.

The report, based on a survey of 2,167 UK five- to 16-year-olds, said 53% of youngsters owned mobile phones by around the age of seven.

The survey might have found that just over half had phones by 7 but I doubt very much it's an accurate reflection of the reality.

My child is in y3 (class age 7/8). The only children who have phones are the ones with parents who have split up.

I’d of said age 9, my elder two got phones at 11. They were behind the curve of their classmates. I’ve seen very young children with phones often old phone of parents.

In my experience, the shitter the parents, the younger the kids get a phone.

My 7 year old had one, she got it for Christmas and will use it to call her friends who also have one! She does use it as more of a mini tablet more than anything though.
i do think this is probably an area thing, most of my dd friends have them aswell (I live in an extremely poor area so these are probably alternative to a tablet and a lot cheaper)

You sound nice, what an amazing contribution to the thread

My daughter turned 7 this week. I don’t know any of her peers who have a phone.

Yes, apologies as that was an unfortunate post to cross with yours.

It is my experience though. The most troubled / troublesome kids from the most troubled / troublesome families all seem to have phones from a younger age.

There is plenty of research available about the negative effects of screen time on children. I think many parents try to limit the damage, in part by delaying access to phones.

My youngest is 12 and none of my children had a phone until the July of year 6. They didn't walk to school independently though. My 15 year old nephew got a hand-me-down phone when he was 10 (year 5) as he walked to school on his own at that age.
My nieces (separate families) are 8 and both have had phones since they were 6 and 'most of their friends' have phones too.

”The school said she had to have a phone” 😣That’s appalling, and surely a breach of duty by the school.

DD had use of a dumb phone from around that age but it only had my phone number in and grandparents, she only had use of it outside the house in places we might get separated, otherwise it doubled as our house phone as we don't have landline and the contract was only £3.99 a month so much cheaper than BT.

If asked I bet she would say she had her own phone but it was more an emergency phone.

Most other children I know that had their 'own' phone were parents CST offs and had no SIM they just used it for educational apps like tablet rather than free range usage

I have a Y3 and I’m not aware of any of his friends having a phone. They pretty much all have tablets of some sort or another though…

our v old iPad recently died and I have set up an old iPhone for DS instead of buying a new iPad, so if he was asked he might say he has an phone? But it’s actually a mini tablet in functionality, which he uses at home for minecraft on a Weds, Sat and Sun…

Dd is in year 5 and they're all starting to get them this year. I've held out so far, planning to get one next year ready for secondary.