Half of British children aged 5 to 9 own a mobile phone

[Madsometimes]

An article in the Times claims that half of young children now have their own mobile phone, and manufacturers are planning on targeting a handset at children.

I personally only know one 9 year old with his own phone. He uses it to call his Dad who lives apart from his mother. I'm not sure how accurate this article is.

My dds will be getting a phone when they go to secondary school and not before. I'm still rather nervous about the risks of using a phone. I'm also nervous about how much money dd1 will be spending on calls and texts.

My 12 year old hasn't got one

But lots of her friends have

My DD who is nearly nine, has one, she takes it to dance class once a week, as she stays herself at it and has 80p of her original £1.00 credit still on it.

I think it is madness. They don't need them-can't have them in school- so I don't see the point.Secondary school is soon enough.

I do actually let my 9yo out to play without an adult. But then the whole point is that he has to use his initiative without me checking up on him every few minutes. And if he is too badly injured etc to do that, then he probably wouldn't be able to phone me either.

i think relying on mobile phones to keep your kids safe when they are away from you gives a false sense of security
what if you can't get a signal, the battery goes or you are tied up and can't get to the phone?

No chance of having them in this household - that's my intention anyway! Might as well wait a few years when you will be able to microchip and graft GPS systems into their bodies and see where they are - what they're up to.

mobile for 4 year olds

I have a cheap £10 "spare" payg mobile phone. My eldest DD is 9 and is getting quite a social life at the moment so I give her the phone to take with her. She only rings us when she is ready to be collected.

Today she was helping on a stall at the school fair. I knew when the fair finished but she was staying behind to clear up so rather than guess when she'd be ready she took the phone and rang when she was done.

She gives the phone back when she gets home.

My DS has one, so do two of his friends - they are all 8

That's because of thinner skulls.

They have not yet totally 100% proved that mobile phones aren't damaging so I think because of children's thinner skulls, they say they shouldn't have one.
children only text anyway though! they don't talk

somebody i know who is step dad to a 17 yr old and a 15 yr old say they text eachother when he's in the room!