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.

No kid should have a smartphone until at least senior school.

I can't remember how old my dd was, she was 7 or 8 and I gave her my old phone, she uses it for Roblox and taking photos of the dog.

I work in early years and there are children who have "phones" but they are just out of contract ones connected to the WiFi for games. They aren't sitting there texting or on Facebook.

DD is in Y4 and I only know one child in her year with a phone (60 overall).

The vast majority of children in my older DCs’ years got a phone in Y6 or Y7. A couple had dumb phones and got smart phones at 13.

This has also been a question on the Chase, and the answer was 7. I wonder if the data actually includes tablets and kindles too as lots of younger kids have those?

According to my 9 year old, “EVERYONE in the world has a mobile phone apart from him” 😆 he’s still waiting until secondary school though!

If you really want to know the answer, you could ask BBC More or Less. It's a podcast/radio show that analyses numbers in the news/media etc and works out if they're right or wrong.

It's not as dull as it might appear and <spoiler alert> most stats they discuss are wrong, usually because they've asked an unrepresentative population. Eg if you used MN to determine what the average income was, you'd conclude it was about £170k pa.

Or maybe a lot of the stats are from online surveys, which people fill in because they can earn a bit of money and they whizz through quickly without actually answering properly, or the questions are so badly written that it's hard to respond in a way that reflects your experience/opinion - I found this when I tried Yougov out of curiosity. The name makes it sound respectable, but the choices were often quite subjective. Eg how many cats do you have 0, 0-2, 4+ or 300.

With the exception of families where parents have split up (and even then it’s not a given), this chimes with my experience.

My kids are older now but it seemed to be the thing to get kids their first phone on the birthday nearest moving in to secondary school as most kids started using the bus/walking in on their own then. So what's that - 11?

When my dc was 7 out of the year group of 60 kids I knew of 3 who had phones.

1 of the children was quite... free roaming and took themselves home from school everyday, went out and about unsupervised (at that age its unusual in our area) so I imagine the phone was so the parents could keep track of the child's movements.

The other 2 children lived between the separated parents so I assume that was so they could speak to their parents themselves without having to go through the other parent.

Yr 5/6 has been the year that the children started to get phones I preparation for secondary and getting themselves to school independently.

My child is 7, in Y2 so classmates are 6/7, and none of them have a phone as far as I know. I'm not planning on giving him a phone any time soon!

I read a few weeks agothat it was age 6, it's shocking

Summer holidays before starting y7 is the norm here

I have a 7 year old and quite a few of his peers have them, I think it’s shocking tbh,
My 13 year old is the only one with a phone, 11 year old will get my old one when he turns 12.

I teach year 2 and a few have phones (not in school, obviously).

My 7 year old doesn't have a phone and I'm not aware of any of his friends having one either.

I just don’t believe that answer at all. I’ve got one in y3 (7-8) and she absolutely does not have a phone and nor do the majority of the class. One child does and everyone judges because the general vibe is that it’s bloody ridiculous.

General question how do you know they definitely have a phone as opposed to they use a phone at home, have access to a second hand one they can play one or are just making it up.

DD is in Y3 so classmates are 7/8.
About 3 or 4 of her class have phones. They also have TikTok etc.

There is a smartphone pledge circulating around the parents in the school where they sign up not to give kids phones until much older.

So there is a definite divide. But most parents are very aware of the issues surrounding phone use and young kids/teens.

I have an 8 year old and I don't know of any of her friends having a phone. My older one got a phone in year 6 which was when most of them did as they were travelling independently. It was just a Nokia, he got a smart phone in year 7. I still have family link set up so that I have yo approve any apps.
I do know lots of 7 year olds who have their own tablets which have free access to youtube and I not sure this is much better.

I know a few who have an old phone with no sim card, that they effectively use like my dc use their kindle fire.

All DD1s friends got phones at Xmas of Y6, so 10/11.

Nope, my eldest is 9 and we aren't having that conversation yet.

I have known one. I think there was a lot more going on in that house besides poor monitoring of devices. She was living with her grandparents after her mum died and her dad went off to ‘work overseas’. My dd went for a sleepover once and they walked 3 miles from the girls house into the nearest village and back with no adult supervision (would have been 8 at the time?). That was the last time they had a playdate at hers.

Mine is 11 now and does not yet have a phone. But I’d say most of her friends have from 9/10.

A few I know have old phones to use in the house on Wi-Fi for games, audiobooks etc. My ds had access to my old iPad mini with his own Apple ID from about that age (own ID because it makes it easier to lock down parental controls). He only started messaging friends from age 10. Still no actual phone yet although I’d say about half his year do.

My son is eight and none of his friend have a phone.

I was shocked at that too. 7!

Nearly all my teen DC friends got their phone in P7 before starting secondary (Scottish) so around 11/12. A few around 10 but rarely lower than that.

Thinking that things may have moved lower in the last few years I went for nine.

I can see the "no sim, no contacts" thing of handing over older phones would increase the number. Rather than a proper phone contract.

And a "majority" just means 51% or more.

But still shocked!