What age SHOULD you give your child a phone? 5 experts give opinions

Looking around a classroom today, you might be hard pressed to find a child who doesn't have a smartphone in their pocket.  

However, around the country, many schools are now pushing back against the constant presence of smartphones in the classroom.

Last week Ormiston Academies Trust, an academy chain with 35,000 pupils, announced it would ban mobiles at its 42 schools.

But as smartphones are being pushed out of classrooms, many parents might wonder when it is okay to give their children their first phone.

MailOnline has asked leading child development experts for their opinion and reveals why there may be no simple answer.

Although it might have once been rare to see a child with the latest smartphone, phone use among children has become nearly ubiquitous in recent years.

Data collected by Ofcom now shows that 65 per cent of children own a smartphone before the age of ten.

Recent studies also show that children are also on their phones from an even earlier age with a quarter of five to seven-year-olds now owning a smartphone.

On average, the age at which a child in the US receives their first phone is now 11.6 years old, with phone ownership rising sharply between 10/7 and 12.5 years old.

Even children who don't own smartphones frequently borrow devices such as tablets from their parents.

A recent Ofcom report found that 90 per cent of children aged three to four go online, with 84 per cent doing so to watch YouTube.

Naturally, this has raised concerns among parents and experts that early smartphone adoption might be causing long-term damage.

Last year the chief inspector of Ofsted Amanda Spielman said: 'I'm not comfortable with younger children having unlimited internet access.

'I'm very surprised when primary-aged children have smartphones, for example, and even in early secondary school. It’s really hard to manage that.'

One of the biggest concerns parents might have is that giving their children a smartphone too early might inhibit their development.

While this is a matter of intense scientific debate, there is a growing body of evidence suggesting that smartphone use can have adverse effects.

Professor Liane Azevedo, Professor in Public Health at Sheffield Hallam University’s School of Sport and Physical Activity, told MailOnline that there may be some reason to hold off on giving your child a smartphone.

Professor Azevedo says: 'In my opinion, I am worried about children substituting the usual play with toys and other children by using these devices and how this is affecting the development of their social and communication skills by playing with other children.'

'There is also the concern that by not playing there, motor development will also be affected.'

Current research suggests that six years old may be a critical point for childhood development, before which giving a child any kind of interactive media might not be advisable.  

Up until the age of six children are still developing critical motor and interpersonal skills which are best learned through face-to-face interaction.

Additionally, studies have found that amount of grey matter, or brain cells, appears to peak just before the age of six. 

For this reason, the Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS) recommends that children below two have no screen time at all and that children below five have less than one hour a day.

Professor Azevedo says: 'There is some evidence, although still a bit contradictory, that smartphone use might negatively affect children's socio-emotional and self-regulatory skills.'

A study published in 2022 in Acta Psychologica based on research with Thai children aged two to five years old found that children who spend more time on smartphones had worse motor skills.

Likewise, research from the University of Cambridge found that extensive smartphone use in children was associated with higher impulsivity and cognitive inflexibility.

The research found that repeated exposure to fast-faced content like Instagram reels and TikTok could 'trigger individuals into seeking higher arousal levels, which in turn hamper engagement in activities that require sustained attention'.

As children grow older, their brains develop more fully and they may be less affected.

Professor Azevedo notes research has found that children younger than six may be particularly sensitive to the sleep-disturbing effects of smartphones.

WHAT ARE THE GUIDELINES FOR CHILDREN'S SCREEN TIME? 

There are no official guidelines for screen time limits.

But there are calls for interventions to be put in place due to growing concern about the impact of screen time, and social media use, on the mental health and wellbeing of young people. 

The Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and American Association of Pediatrics (AAP) both give guidance for parents.

Among the AAP guidelines used as a reference in the study are:

• For children younger than 18 months, avoid use of screen media other than video-chatting. 
• Parents of children 18 to 24 months of age who want to introduce digital media should choose high-quality programming, and watch it with their children to help them understand what they're seeing. 
• For children ages 2 to 5 years, limit screen use to 1 hour per day of high-quality programs. 
• Parents should co-view media with children to help them understand what they are seeing and apply it to the world around them. 
• Designate media-free times together, such as dinner or driving, as well as media-free locations at home, such as bedrooms. 

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has said he would not allow his child to have a smartphone until the age of 14 when their brains are more developed.

However, there is also some indication that early exposure to smartphones may also impact children's mental health later in life due to increased exposure to social media.

A study from the group Sapien Labs found that the later a child received their first phone, the better their mental health would be as an adult.

Conversely, the study claims that the younger a child is when they receive their first phone, the more likely they are to experience suicidal thoughts later in life.

Prominent thinker Jonathan Haidt has recently made claims about the impact of smartphones on mental health the centerpiece of his argument to limit access to phones for children.

Based on these ideas, it might be tempting to withhold a smartphone from your child as long as possible to ensure they have the best possible mental health.

However, the connection between mental health and smartphone use is much less clear than Mr Haidt and other campaigners insist.

Professor Candice Odgers, Professor of Psychology and Informatics at the University of California Irvine, told MailOnline: 'Science to date does not support the widespread panic around social media and mental health.'

Professor Odgers explains that an estimated 90 per cent of studies connecting social media to mental health are correlational - meaning they cannot prove that smartphone or social media use causes poor mental health.

Likewise, a 2023 report by the National Academies of Sciences expert committee concluded: 'Available research that links social media to health shows small effects and weak associations, which may be influenced by a combination of good and bad experiences.

'Contrary to the current cultural narrative that social media is universally harmful to adolescents, the reality is more complicated.'

When you're child receives their first mobile phone far from the most important factor in their development.

A study published in 2022 by Stamford Medicine found no connection between the age children acquired their first phone with sleep patterns, grades, or depression symptoms.

While most previous studies had looked at a large group of students at a single time, this study followed 250 children for five years.

By the end of the study period, the researchers found no meaningful association between well-being and when they received their phones.

In fact, research now shows how parents use their mobile phones might be much more important.

The same Thai study which reported a connection between phone use and poor motor development also found that the more time parents spent on their phones, the more time children spent on theirs.

Professor Azevedo says that early years teachers now say they are more worried about how much time parents spend on their phones.

She says: 'They are concerned about child's use but also very worried about parents’ excessive use of smartphones and how this affects their interaction with the child.

'They noticed that children are coming to nursery with a delay in speech, and not many children are school-ready.'

Teachers who have worked with Professor Avazedo's study say that this 'reflects a lack of or poor interaction between parents and children because of the distractions with mobile phones.'

All of this is to say that deciding when to give your child a mobile phone is a more complicated question than it might first appear.

While giving a child their first phone below the age of six might heighten the risks of developmental issues, studies have found that watching TV actually has a far greater negative effect.

Of course, using smartphones from a young age or being excessively exposed to social media can still have profoundly negative impacts.

What matters more is how mature your child is and how smartphones are introduced.

If phones are leading them to access harmful online content or are distracting them from engaging with their parents and peers, then giving a child a smartphone would be a bad idea.

But if a child is mature enough to just use their phone to contact their parents, stay safe, and access educational materials then there is nothing necessarily wrong with them having one.

Unfortunately, Professor Azevedo says that there is currently no way to set a health guideline for when a child should be introduced or how much time they should spend on their phones.

Professor Azevedo is currently undertaking a study funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to determine if there is a 'dose' of smartphones children can have without harming their development.

However, while we wait for the results of that research, the decision of when a child is ready for their first phone must ultimately rest with the parents.