When Should Kids Have Phones?

by Catherine C. & Allie H.
Published March 28, 2024

Phones are an excellent way to communicate with friends and family. They offer a variety of fun games and online activities to do. With a device so perfect, what could go wrong? You’d be surprised at the amount.

According to ReachOut Parents, the most common age to experience cyberbullying is “around 11 or 12.”  Cyberbullying, or online bullying, is using a social platform or the Internet to bully another person or group of people. It can be  demoralizing and lead to serious problems such as depression.  FirstCry Parenting points out that having phones as a child increases the probability of cheating on tests in numerous ways, like using the online calculator.  To make this worse, ChatGPT has appeared on mobile phones. For those unfamiliar with the AI chatbot, ChatGPT is a natural language processing chatbot that has been used for academic dishonesty since it was open to the public.  Looking to get a phone at 11 or 12? Maybe not this year.

6ABC Action News quotes, “We do know that in some studies, especially in the early adolescent period, 12 to 15 years of age, more than three hours a day was associated with negative mental health outcomes. Many experts suggest waiting to give your kids a smart phone until they are at least 13 years old or in 8th grade.” It’s true! This is the recommended age by experts to get a phone.

The National Library of Medicine tells what the impact of getting a phone at a young age does to you. They say, “High proportions of youth engage in heavy smartphone use and media multitasking, with resultant chronic sleep deprivation, and negative effects on cognitive control, academic performance and socioemotional functioning.” This brings us back to an earlier point, getting a phone in 8th grade. 13 years old may be the perfect year to get a phone, and 97 percent of teens between 13 and 17 report having a phone, according to washingtonpost.com. The choice seems obvious. 

Brooke Shannon thought so, too. She thought all kids need to be 13 or in 8th grade to have a phone. So she started the movement called “Wait Until 8th”. Lots of people support it, even parents at St. Andrews! The website talks about why to wait until the 8th grade, other choices of phones, and gives you the choice to sign the “Wait Until 8th” pledge.

Right now we’re only talking about smartphones. Brooke Shannon mentions the alternative on her website-the basic phone. The basic phone has several varieties. It includes the Bark Phone, Gabb Phone, and the Lightphone. The basic phone can be used if a kid is playing a sport or doing a carpool with friends and the kid needs to be able to contact their parents. 

If we’re including basic phones in the wide category that is phones, and these basic phones don’t have those features that could’ve stopped 11-12 year-olds from having phones, then what is the ideal age to get a phone?