Feeling old? 10 percent of under 10s have a smartphone

by Steven Mostyn - Sep 23 2011, 14:13

Here’s a stat that’s likely to make technophobes over the age of thirty feel even more antiquated and inadequate where modern consumer devices are concerned: Around one in 10 children below the age of 10 has a smartphone.

That’s according to a study conducted by cloud-based Internet security firm Westcoastcloud, which discovered that around 30 percent of such children have their own mobile phone and 10 percent use Internet-enabled handsets powered by iOS or Android.

Other figures thrown up by the survey reveal that 16 percent of children have their own laptop computers, 18 percent have their own flatscreen televisions, and 25 percent have email accounts.

“It’s great that youngsters are interested and engaged with the latest technology, but children owning their own phones as young as four does seem unnecessary,” commented Westcoastcloud director Bill Strain.

“Kids will always be able to gain access to their parents’ phones and laptops but when primary school age children gain access to the Internet on these devices, parents need to be aware,” he added.

Worryingly, while only eight percent of children have online access to a social networking account, some 21 percent of parents said they do not actively follow their child’s activity on sites such as Twitter and Facebook. A mere 13 percent said they do strive to monitor activity.

Further to that, around 51 percent of polled parents admitted that they do not seek out and enforce the parental controls that are freely available through their home computer systems.

Westcoastcloud’s research was carried out across a response pool of 2,000 families and delved into details regarding their ownership of consumer technology.

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