“Not long ago, many parents wondered at what age they should give their child full access to the car keys. Nowadays, parents face a trickier question: At what age should a child own a smartphone? The topic is being increasingly debated as children get smartphones at an ever younger age. On average, children are getting their first smartphones around age 10, according to the research firm Influence Central, down from age 12 in 2012. For some children, smartphone ownership starts even sooner–including second graders as young as 7, according to internet safety experts. … ‘The longer you keep Pandora’s box shut, the better off you are,’ said Jesse Weinberger, an internet safety speaker based in Ohio who gives presentations to parents, schools and law enforcement officials. ‘There’s no connection to the dark side without the device.’ … Ms. Weinberger, who wrote the smartphone and internet safety book The Boogeyman Exists: And He’s in Your Child’s Back Pocket, said she had surveyed 70,000 children in the last 18 months and found that, on average, sexting began in the fifth grade, pornography consumption began when children turned 8, and pornography addiction began around age 11.”
“What’s the Right Age for a Child to Get a Smartphone,” New York Times, July 20, 2016