UK: Almost a quarter of kids aged 5-7 have smartphones

People really handing their kids devices that have cellular service and unfettered internet access? All my kids devices have 2 layers of adblock, parental controls, and no cell service.

Ok. Or you could, you know, not give them these. Some pretty good data coming out on why this isn't a great idea. It's not just luddite ranting.
- Yup. I let my kids (7 and 10) play video games or watch approved shows and that's about it. They get 1 hour on Saturdays, and they can "earn" more any day by reading: 1 hour reading = 30 min "screen time." We have a max of 2 hours/day, but they can bank time day to day.
  It works pretty well. They definitely abuse the system by going beyond their allotted time, but if I "find out," they lose privileges for a couple days, so it seems they stay pretty honest on average without a ton of oversight.
  I don't have any parental controls/blocking except for:
  ad blocker - screw ads
  passcode on Switch - mostly because of my 4yo, my older kids know the code
  Basically, I operate on trust and honesty, and I think it works okay.
I’ll probably get my kids a dumb phone for school when they get old enough. I want them to have cell service for emergencies of any kind.
- i think an apple watch eould be great for that use case.

The worst thing about this in my opinion, is that this is mostly a problem for the children from less resourceful families. There is already a tendency for children from lower socioeconomic households to have more problems with concentration. Adding smartphones will only exacerbate the problem and fuel the fires of growing inequality.

The problem is those family sets the standard for everyone.
In middle school it started from poor family who can't afford other activities than handing down their old smartphone, then the percentage grew to the point not giving a smartphone to your kid means he's isolated from the group.
- Perhaps, but parents need to commit to what they know is healthy for their kids. I didn't have a phone until I bought it myself in college, even though "everyone" had a phone. My sister is doing the same with her family (has a 17yo with no phone), and I plan to do the same with mine (10yo w/ no phone).
  My kids (oldest 10) can whine as much as they want, but they're not getting a phone until they earn my trust. And given how much they break the rules we already have, it's going to be a while.
  My sister and I aren't poor, nor were we growing up, we're both middle class or even a bit above. More people need to push back, because phones seem to be screwing kids up. Look at statistics for suicide and depression, suicide seems to be going up while depression remains pretty consistent, and that seems to have changed right around the time when smartphones became ubiquitous (2015-ish).
  So no, my kids aren't getting phones anytime soon, and it really doesn't matter what their friends' parents do.

I went to look around a nursery the other day, one that is attached to a school. We walked past kids that couldn't have been older than 6-7 dancing (possibly filming) to a TikTok vid, on a brand-new looking iPhone.

I'm usually against governments getting involved in the internet, since they have such a piss-poor understanding of tech, but it would be good to see some kind of regulation that bans people of a certain age from operating a smartphone without a limited set of operations (i.e. to contact parents, to get school alerts, etc), alongside school bans for the use of social media on school grounds. My wife is a teacher, and cyber bullying is rampant, whether it's the police getting called in over someone (underage) sending nudes and having them posted online once they break up, or fights being planned via iMessage or WhatsApp, and sometimes even people creating fake Tinder/Grindr profiles of their teachers (or to try to match with them).

Obviously, there are parents that'll just say "fuck it, it keeps them quiet" or ones that'll let them use a smartphone due to peer pressure, but a lot of it can be cut down before it becomes a problem.

In many ways, I'm quite glad I grew up with AIM and MSN Messenger. This kind of online power would have been crazy to me as a kid, and I don't envy kids that have to deal with this landscape.

LoL your asking the addicted to not make their kids addicted. Good luck!

Sounds like you would be a horrible parent. The last thing kids need is their father to snoop around in their web traffic and erode any kind of privacy. Children are still humans, and you should respect them as such.

Beyond the proven addictive effects of handing a dopamine device to your kid, there are legal ramifications many parents aren't aware of.

WhatsApp and TikTok aren't just there like air, free for all to consume. They are service providers and both sides are bound by a contract, the EULA. IIRC, WhatsApp recently reduced it minimum age from 16 to 12. So if you install WhatsApp on your 8 year old's phone, you have broken the contract.

The only ramification being that they close the account if they find out. No one is getting arrested, getting a fine, or even going to court.

I think it's fine for kids to have a phone as long as the parents properly limit their use

Is the sort of parent who gives a 5 year old their own phone going really going to a limit the use? I think the crossover in that Venn diagram is pretty small.
- It is not hard. Just have a family app and you can set an allowance of total and for each app. Takes like 10 minutes to set up.

how else are children supposed to communicate with friends other than at school?

Dumb phone exist. My children got their dumb phones when they started walking to school on their own (so they can call us in case of a problem).
No internet, only 4 harmless games and I can control which numbers are allowed to call them and which numbers they are allowed to call.
Mail 📬 ?
- Homing Pigeons 🪽?

It’s much easier to give your kid your old phone and pay $10 a month for a kids’ account than to deal with your kid constantly wanting to use your phone.

For sure, its easier than being present as a parent
- When they are at the point of going to sleepovers, play dates at friends, camp, etc it also makes a lot of sense to give them a lifeline.
  The kids line I pay for gives me all the parental controls I could dream of and control over her contacts. I am 100% present, but I’m not dumb enough to send me kid out into the world without a lifeline.
  It seems being needlessly judgmental is the easiest of all.
Being a good parent isn't doing whatever's easiest to distract your kid.
- When they are at the point of going to sleepovers, play dates at friends, camp, etc it also makes a lot of sense to give them a lifeline.
  The kids line I pay for gives me all the parental controls I could dream of and control over her contacts. I am 100% present, but I’m not dumb enough to send me kid out into the world without a lifeline.
  It seems being needlessly judgmental is the easiest of all.