How Young Is Too Young?: Rethinking Smartphones and Social Media for Kids

In today’s technological era, everything is different from how things were in the olden days. The world literally moved from the days when people had to send messages through birds to having a public phone everyone could use and then to the introduction of cell phones which everyone could own and have one for their personal use. Today, smartphones are the thing of the day and everyone owns one, even kids.

Growing up, I didn’t have a tablet or whatever kids of today use. My parents had their personal phones and that’s what I used to play games and all of that when I was younger. Today, my siblings have tablets they use to learn at their age that helps them a lot. These tablets are regulated to ensure that they only come into contact with content their age.

Speaking of mobile phones, I started using a mobile phone early because my school was far away from where we stayed and I needed to stay in contact with my parents about how I was to get home after school due to their daily schedules. I wouldn’t say I was very young then because I was almost in junior high school and most of my mates also had their own cell phones. Then, there weren’t much social media platforms and the main one everyone used was facebook so obviously, I owned a facebook account which I didn’t even use that much.

Today, there are over 10 social media platforms people use and the rate at which the world is growing in terms of technology is alarming. In the outside world, kids as young as the age of one have social media channels and pages being handled by their parents and for kids who are a bit older say 10 years going, most of them have their own personal phones. In Ghana where I come from, I would say the age range at which a child can own a smart phone has dropped a bit but there are still some limitations. For most kids I’ve seen having cell phones, I’d like to believe most of them would be around the ages of 15 going.

For me, I’d say the issue of the appropriate age a kid should own a smartphone is subjective because a lot of things come into play. Some situations demand that a kid have a smartphone for their own safety and what have you. And also, most of these decisions lie with the parents and as obvious as it is, every parent has their own style of parenting. The world is fast evolving and the issue of kids having cell phones is a really delicate one as these kids need to be protected in order not to come into contact with content that’s not meant for them. At the end of the day ,I believe we would all find a way to balance all these developments with our parenting styles.

At what age do you think a child should own a smartphone?

---

all images belong to me.

---