CHILDREN receive their first mobile phone at the average age of seven, a new study suggests.
Youngsters are now given handsets while at primary school - six years earlier than a decade ago.
The majority of parents (74%) claim they give children mobiles for safety reasons and "peace of mind" while 61% say they set up "pay monthly" contracts rather than opting for "pay as you go", the poll found.
It also found around 22% of parents bought their children phones simply because their classmates had them.
The study, by comparison site MobilePhoneChecker.co.uk, found youngsters are now likely to be just seven-and-a-half when they get their first phone. In 2003, the average age was 13.2 years.
Adam Cable, director of MobilePhoneChecker.co.uk, said: "Despite the argument that parents want to keep their children safe at all times, many may think that seven years old is far too young to own a mobile.
"The protection of children is obviously a key factor in their usage of mobile phones, but as long as the proper precautions are taken to ensure maximum safety of children using handsets, then they absolutely have their benefits."
The poll found most adults aged 25-30 first got a Nokia 3310. Some 86% of this age group had to "pester" their parents for their first phone.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article