Photo: Flickr
I got my first cell phone at the ripe old age of 20. The year was 1999; the Roth IRA was taking the world by storm, a little show called Futurama set about to claw its way into popular culture, and the song “No Scrubs” by TLC was climbing the charts and had guys who thought they were fly (also known as “busters”) rethinking their mating strategies altogether.
Getting your first cell phone at age 20 nowadays? The stuff of schoolyard mockery! According to the Telegraph, the average age for a kid to get his or her first cell phone is eight. Eight! I think it’s funny to see little kids talking on cell phones. The handsets are too big for them and the act of communicating on a mobile device makes them look like tiny, tantrum-prone adults.
The numbers come from a survey of “1,435 people including 546 children aged seven to 15, 676 parents and 759 grandparents between January 16 and 26,” finding that 35 percent of children own a cell phone by age eight. I’m not sure how that equates to an “average” since it’s only 35 percent and they didn’t ask anyone under the age of seven – that E*TRADE baby has a BlackBerry, he totally would have brought the average down – but even 35 percent of kids aged eight or younger is still kind of amazing.
The survey was also conducted in the UK where cell phone service is more affordable per capita, so that might skew the numbers a bit. And let’s face it, it might be nice for parents to (theoretically) be able to get a hold of their kids easily and for kids to have a solid means of communication in an emergency. The study also concluded that cell phone use teaches kids about money management, particularly as it pertains to buying ringtones.
“It found that children as young as seven were offering to do chores in exchange for cash to buy ringtones.”
I believe that when I was that age, I was doing chores for money to play Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game down at the local candy store.
[Telegraph.co.uk via textually.org]
Wow. I knew it was getting younger but wow! 8 is really young. I believe that although that study was done in the UK that the average wouldn’t be much older here in the US. Just from looking around when I’m out I see kids with cell phones all the time. As for it teaching money management, maybe…but so did raking leaves to get money to go to a movie or the mall.
I’m all for the kids having those firefly cell phones for exactly the purposes you state, emergencies and keeping in contact with the family. But it seems at least mildly concerning that any 8 year old would be socially conscious enough to be worried about the ringtone they have on their cell phone. That seems more like an early move toward some kind of disorder than toward fiscal responsibility.
As I’ve asked below, where is an eight year old kid that their parent can’t keep in touch with them without a cell phone? They’re at school all day then they’re at home. They’re not sixteen years old and working an afterschool job and traveling around town with their friends.
How much life is different in developed and developing countries in the world! In my part of the world, Most people even cannot think of owning a mobile hand set Even at the age of 30.
Who are these idiots buying cell phones for their kids? I owned my first cell phone when I turned 30. That was in 2007. I have been in the tech industry (software engineer) since 1998. If I can do without a cell phone as a technical professional, so can your stupid toddler. Besides, your kid is EIGHT. Who in the hell is your eight year old even TALKING to? When I was eight years old, everyone I talked to LIVED IN MY HOUSE with me.
Only “technical professionals” need cell phones ?
No friends at 8? No friends until 30?
Way to miss the point.
If anyone other than a doctor needs a cell phone, it’s a technical professional due to the nature of the job. Being reachable at all times for clients and colleagues who are usually spaced around the globe rather than centralized in an office. Your snot-notes xerox does not have the same demands that a developer or a doctor or Jack Bauer has for being available and having a means for constant contact.
How many friends did you have at eight years old that you needed to call on the phone? You live with almost everyone you know and those that you don’t live with, you see every single day at school. And you’re EIGHT. It’s not like you’re out toiling in the fields all day or installing HVAC systems all day, so you need a portable phone since you’re not near a landline. You’re EIGHT. You live in a home. Presumably with a phone ALREADY. Again, presuming there is anyone you need to talk to so badly at eight years old that you can’t wait until you see them at school the next day.
Then again, I guess those pressing Spongebob discussions wait for nobody and must occur as soon as you get home and put on your big boy pants.
Not a parent, are you? While I think giving a kid a cellphone at age 8 is somewhat ridiculous, having the ability to get ahold of your child, or vice versa at anytime is a very attractive proposition. Especially in this day and age where you can get cellphones only capable of calling a handful of emergency number and family plans that make those cellphones effectively free.
Besides, nothing about cellphones for 99% of the population, including “technical professionals”, has anything to do with need. Its a luxury/convenience/status symbol item and has been for ages. Most people could live without a cell phone, but then you sure lose out. Nothing more annoying then a change in plans that you can’t communicate to other people.
No, I am quite fortunately entirely child-free so I have neither burdened myself nor society with yet one more snot-nosed xerox.
Your EIGHT YEAR OLD does not require the LUXURY of a cell phone. You do NOT need to have your eight year old “reachable at all times”. Your child is EIGHT. Where is he? At school or at home, right? When they’re at school, they can’t have the phone so that’s pointless. And when they’re at home, they’re at home.
Where exactly is your eight year old that you can’t otherwise reach them or watch them? And if the only way to stay in touch with your randomly wandering eight year old apparently making big dates and meetings all over the big city as he likes, who is watching him?
You are obviously not a parent, don’t have a clue as to the problems in school now days and don’t remember the 5 Amish girls that were killed by a nut-job. If you had ever had a child in a lockdown situation then you would understand WHY a cell-phone would be a good thing. Yes they should be monitored and not used to excess but when the schools no longer will keep the parents in the loop and lockdown the schools without the parents ability to know if their child is okay or not then a cell phone is the ONLY link.
Kids use the Internet at age 3 and 4 to communicate with friends and family. As long as appropriate safety measures are taken, I do not see anything wrong with a teenager – high school demographic – using a cell phone. An 8yo child does not need a cell phone unless it has a built-in GPS locator for parents and is used to track the child’s location.
BS, My 4 year old twins can read their names and that’s about it. They surf the Backyardagins website but they are certainly not using the internet “…to communicate with friends and family…”
get a grip.
Eight? Are you kidding?! I don’t even think I knew how to work a phone at that age. I agree with Michael..unless the phone has GPS for the child’s location, I see no reason why a child that young needs a cell phone! At that age, a child should be with an adult at all time, who I’m sure has a phone of their own…geeez.
One of my 11 year olds friends wanted a cell phone for xmas and now shes regretting it because all the other Kids have Nintendo DS’s and she can only call her friends at home .
The DS is the device the Tweens currently play with not cellphones,
I can just feel the inner Luddite in me coming out when I read this story.
Seriously, though: my bullshit filters are tingling bigtime. I do not believe that the average kid in North America, at any rate, has a cell phone at 8.
I agree. While I do see the age traveling in this direction, I do not think that an average 8 year old would have a cell phone. I’d put it more around age 10-12.
While the cell phone culture is infiltrating kids at a younger and younger age, most parents are either too broke to buy a cell phone for an 8 year old or have at least enough common sense to wait until they are 12 when they start going often with their friends.
But, I do find that any kid under the age of say 14 does not need a cell phone. If you’re worried, get a GPS wristband or some such.
I make six figures and have a hard time justifying the approximately $100/mo I pay for my cell plan (after my 20% business discount). I would have an even harder time justifying even a portion of that for a child. If they need a phone so bad, you can buy a land line for about $20/mo without risk of ridiculous additional charges.
You may have got into the tech industry in 1998 but man, you talk and actlike you’re 80 years OLD.
It triggers my bullshit detector as well. That said, Europe has a much higher adoption rate for mobile phones than the US ever has. A combination of a fee based landlines and a dense population make cell towers cheap, while cell service appealing.
I think a few of these things are greatly skewed in the UK, just as their texting use and rates are ridiculously skewed and not representative of that in America. Our text rates are something like 20 cents per message (each direction) and our text usage, while growing, does not even approach that of the UK. I think this survey is equally skewed in that regard.
I have a 9 month old and there is no way in hell he is going to have a cell phone at age 8. I’m a big gadget geek but my kids probably going to be pretty miserable. He isn’t going to have a cell phone, he isn’t going to have a computer in his bedroom. Enough is enough. Kids need to read books and go outside and play in the real world.
i agree – get outside and do something. i’m the meanest mother in town, but my dd appreciates it. no phone until high school, no video game console, ever, only 1/2 hour monitored computer use a day (though i’m more lenient on weekends). we don’t believe in giving in to popular fads, especially today’s fads, which are quite a step away from the 50’s hoola-hoop. kids don’t need phones, as someone above pointed out; they are, or should be, with an adult who has one.
phones here in nz are expensive, and so are usage fees. one of my students broke his $600 phone the other day. i can’t believe his parents spent $600 on a phone for a high school kid (though that is a middle of the road price here). my dd got a $99 “cheapie”, using her own hard-earned cash (she’s in year 11 now).
Sheltering your kids usually have the opposite or negative effect on your kids as they are mal-adjusted to the real world once the leave home.
I don’t want no scrubs. A scrub is a guy who can’t get no love from me. Hanging out the passenger side of his best friend’s ride, trying to holla at me.
Thanks for the trip back, Doug.
The scary thing is that if 8 is the average, there are kids under eight getting them to.
Wow.
i know that that’s true in our area. i see a lot of young kids, as young as 8, with cell phones…. hmmm… do they need them? no. i think the parents give in for ’security reasons’, but really, a big part of it is for convenience (communication wise) – especially for household whose both parents work outside their home.
What?? What does an 8 year old need with a cellphone? I didn’t get a cell phone until I was 17. If I had kids, the only sort of phone I would get them is the kind that can make 4 preset phone calls–it’s designed specifically for kids. Geez, kids these days. I’m all about technology, but seriously, what happened to sitting down with a hot cup of cocoa and reading a book?
yeah, as you noted, that math does not lead to avg = 8. And I still call b.s. on that alleged survey. There is no way in hell that’s even close.
Yea futurama!!!!!
We have promised cell phone to our daughter on her upcoming 10th Birthday.
Our 8-year old does not have his own mobile, but for what it’s worth, 8-year olds are far beyond toddlers. They’re involved in after-school clubs, sports, scouts, etc. – all things that start to require logistics when the family is spread all over town. While I wouldn’t be up for my 8-year using a mobile of his own to be in touch with friends (that’s what club penguin is for, right?), I have a very strong desire for him in touch with us.
Also, we haven’t had a landline phone for nearly a decade. Are you going to make a mobile phone a requirement when you’re screening babysitters? Seems best to have an extra mobile on a 2nd line attached to your plan that’s used as a “just in case” for the kids.
I’m sure you do have a strong desire for your eight year old to stay in touch with you. However, you LIVE with him. YOU are the one presumably driving him to his sports and scouts, yes? You tuck him in at night, yes?
It’s not like he’s out painting the town red or away at college and you need a way to keep in touch with him so you don’t drift apart. You aren’t allowed to have a cell phone at school, so are you telling me that he gets home, picks up the cell phone then you drive him to scouts or sports practice and you have no idea what time his practice gets out unless he calls you on the phone? Or that without that phone there is no way for him to possibly let you know if changes? As long as YOU have a cell phone and YOU can be reached, your kid can reach you. How? The same way we all did as recently as ten years ago. Pay phone. School phone. Home phone. Whatever.
Again, if your kid is very active and has a social life and staying in touch is really hard, I understand. That happens much later than 8 years old. It happens when they are independent enough that they can get around to most of the activities they need on their own, have jobs and have taken on a number of obligations and responsibilities. Not when they’re eight years old and need to get home from volley ball practice in time to watch Hannah Montana.
There are no pay phones anymore, neither are there home phones anymore. School phone, maybe… but why bother? An extra line for a mobile plan is often already included in the plan. Seems like a non-issue.
Totally agree with you, no. As a teacher, one of the rudest and most annoying things about cell phones (other than text-talking in class) is when parents CALL THEIR KIDS. Um, hello?! Are you serious? Way to teach responsibility and respect.
My 4 year old son called me at work last week to ask for my itunes password. He was playing games on my iphone and easily figured out the app store and how to buy more. My wife had no clue what he was doing and cant really tell you what an “app store” is.
I am afraid to think what he will be doing at 8.
I hope you didn’t give him your password :)
no way! However I see him trying to memorize it when I do download something for him. :)
BS, not at 4 maybe 5 or 5 1/2. I have two 4 year old girls and had a 4 year old boy 10 years ago.
My 7-year old daughter has a cell phone. Does she really need one? Of course not, neither does she need most of the crap filling up her room. But she likes having her own number that her grandparents can call her on, and all the kids in her class have one :-)
Is it a luxury? Hell no, I paid about $100 for the phone and the monthly bill is 1-5$. She has plenty of toys that are more expensive. I suspect the US is different her, but the story was also from Europe.
I didn’t have a cellphone when I was 7, but that was 30 years ago…
That picture is a friend of mine’s kid. Awesome
This is to early. That’s strange. I guess a lot of parents do not really understand what children need and what not.
for fucks sake, all you old people as if a cellphone was some kind of rite of passage. I’d rather have an old phone in my kids backpack with LBS switched on, which they have , instead of them being whisked off to the woods and praying like something in Deliverance. If you cant get over the fact that a cellphone is a disposable commodity and kids of 8 can have one, then you probably thought color TV was a luxury and your dad might one day get rid of the horse and buy a steam car.
LMAO
ure absolutely right. cell phones can be bought for as cheap as $35 and no plan. Hasnt anyone heard of pay as you go plans?
Hence your kid can only talk as much as you want them to. Unless they have a job which at 8 is unlikely lol
P.S if your kids dont have one yet, I am sure there is a creepy old man somewhere that will lend them one…
I’m 17 and still no cell phone. I should get a laptop for saving my parents years worth of cell phone bills
Have to hold up my hand and say that on my daughters eighth birthday she received a cellphone. The thing is me and her mother are seperated and what’s great is that she can call me whenever she desires now! She also has an iPod Touch for her media and applications.
Please don’t write and article stating that at the age of 9 they will be getting MacBook Air’s as I will have to start saving :P
lol – an 8 year old kid ‘needs’ a cell phone for the same reason they ‘need’ a toy car…so they can act like adults.
In South Africa it is not uncommon for children of age 4 and upwards to have a cellphone or two.
The need for security in this country demands this.
Shameless self promotion!
http://liftingfogblog.com/2009/02/18/average-age-for-1st-cell-phone-is-8-which-is-still-not-low-enough/
But really, great news piece. To think, 8 years old: 10 years before you can drive a car or die for America…
My daughter got her first mobile at age 9, 3 years ago, now she’s 12 and on her 3rd phone – she wears them out.
In Europe (or at least Denmark) kids will be outcasts in school if they don’t own a mobile – this is a social thing, allowing them to text each other, “play” with their mobiles, listen to music and even, as an added bonus, call home and tell if they are going home with a friend after school.
My youngest daughter i 3 this may, her favorite thing is to watch YouTube videos and play music on one of the mobiles – kids want to play adults, using the same gadgets as we do.
Back when mommy was a boy, kids would do what their parents were doing. Girls would propably paly kitchen and house, boys would play in the backyard, build “stuff” etc.
Same deal, just a new millenium.
Just my $0.02
i got my first cell phone at age 19.
Well, it makes perfect sense since they become dads at 13 over here. http://blog.syracuse.com/family/2009/02/a_dad_at_age_13_can_you_imagin.html
I have a 2 yr old daughter and she loves grabbing my cellphone to carry on long conversations – imaginary or real. No way she’s getting a cell phone at 8. Our kids need to be more active like we were when we were kids.
My kids need to lynch more niggers like my great great grandparents did.
anon strikes again
shocking!!!
Are You Crazy? {seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/bE7nHDoUzz_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:”Are You Crazy? ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/vN4yeFCdEv”}}}
It’s Crazy {seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/Q2HRj5l0kc_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:”It’s Crazy ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/vz2gtZu1hX”}}}
u aRE VERY RIGHT ARE THEY CRAZY OR WHAT WHY DOES AND 8 YEAR old kid need a mobile phone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i am 29 but i had my phone at the age of 19
That is amazing!
Amazing. Here’s a related article that talks about the incredible number of cell-phone-wielding youth in the US — and the great opportunity for youth marketers…
http://www.youthmarketing.com/big-numbers-sm…e-of-marketingbig-numbers-small-media-and-the-future-of-marketing/
wow.
like others i disagree with their definition of ‘average’
I am 18 and got my first (and current) mobile at 17 when i got my first job which was in the middle of nowhere so no busses and too far to walk.
I don’t see the need for children to have a mobile phone, they are not allowed in schools and if it’s urgent to get a message to your child while they are at school then the school office will pass this on anyway.
If your child is on a supervised event, eg sports club, then presumably they have an emergency contact number and you can get the mobile number of the coach/organiser.
With regards to going out with friends, if they are old enough and responsible enough to do this then surely they are responsible enough to be able to cope without a call home, what happened to pre-arranging a place to meet if they get separeted from friends??
Regarding the fear of ‘unsavory characters’, its better not to teach them to rely on nervously clutching a mobile phone (which could make them more attractive to muggers or get lost) but how to avoid such situations (the usual, stay in well lit, populated areas, not that children should be out unsupervised in the dark anyway. If they feel in danger to go into a lit shop or other ’safe place’. And if your still worried then a self defense class may help.
Trust your kid and teach them how to behave and a mobile isn’t necessary.
I just got my ten-year-old a mobile this week (I am in the USA).
The reason is: sh*t happens. He got stuck at school last week and none of the admins noticed. The school office was locked and there are no payphones anymore. A teacher (not his) loaned him his cell to call his ride and find out how late she was running.
The thing cost $10 a month to piggyback on my plan.
It is one of those things you want to get too early rather than too late.
My kids know how to behave, and how to care for themselves, but why would I not want to be able to reach them when plans go astray, especially when the precaution does not cost is not signifigant?
thisis a stupid idea why does and 8 year old kid need a cellphone i am 15 and i am still not allowed to hav 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i think this child gets spoiled
this is fuck’in stupid man why does an 8 yyear old kid need a mobile phone shit i dont even hav 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
13 n0ow first fone at 6
I wonder, this is not possible.