These days, times are different. When I was a kid, there were no smartphones in our locale. The only thing with the semblance of a phone back then was the annoyingly noisy land phone; its only function is to make and receive phone calls. However, kids nowadays have it different. They have smartphones, Wi-Fi, tablets, and many wonderful electronic gadgets that make life easy and solve problems. However, one thing I learnt the hard way about this life we live is that with every solution comes a new wave of problems that need solving. So, it's a never-ending loop of problems and solutions, this life.
The definitive age for a kid to be given access to phones is relative and depends on maturity and needs. Also, it depends on the society and how fucked up or level headed the inhabitants in there may be. With the monetization of social media, some talented kids are already on display on the world market, where their talents are farmed by their parents or relatives for money. This is not in any way bad, especially if the kid is mature enough to handle the pressure. However, such kids who are used in comedy, movies, or songs and already have some followers will definitely have access to a phone because their condition necessitates it.
Some experts believe that between the ages of 13 and 14 is the right time for kids to have full access to smartphones; others recommend 12, while the smart ones can handle the pressure by the age of 10. However, when it comes to social media and its shenanigans, there is no saying when the right time is to be ready for it. Despite having social media accounts for more than 15 years, I still dread the toxicity of some social media spaces. Despite that, a smart kid will know when to swim close to the tide and when not to else he/she get swept away.
For all the advantages that come with the use of smartphones, exposing kids to smartphones when they are not ready comes at a great cost. The disadvantages are many and life-wrecking. The first one that easily comes to mind is the possible exposure to inappropriate content. Violent and disturbing images, adult content, explicit wordings, just to name a few, are the things these kids will be exposed to. Will they be ready for it? Will their parents be ready for what those indecent exposures will lead to?
One thing most kids love is to play games, and on smartphones, there is an abundance of them. During my high school days, there was this game called Bounce that we used to play on a Nokia phone. We weren't allowed to use phones in the hostel then, but a high-profile kid who happens to be my roommate had his dad grease some palms to allow him to use the phone. I could remember how we would form a queue just to play the game, every single day. Each person gets 30 minutes to play and will pass it to the next on the queue. We'd do this even till midnight, waking whoever is next in the queue up so he could play and pass to the next. Some of us would wake up the next morning with little to no sleep and then spend the best part of the first and second class constituting a nuisance as we engage in a losing battle with sleep. That was how messed up playing games was, and we weren't even playing it on a smartphone.
Honestly, most kids would struggle with smartphones. The entertainment that comes with it will be too much for them to handle, especially if the parents are the somewhat busy type. Add to that the negative impact it will have on their mental health and cognitive development, the addiction and distraction that comes with it, and even pertinently, what they stand to lose in the form of social skills, and it is glaring that early exposure is not worth with. Due to the prevalence of electronic gadgets like calculators, some kids can't do basic arithmetic anymore. They run to their calculator for the simplest of addition questions because their brains tell them, "Why stress yourself when you can use a calculator?"
In the end, each parent knows the ability of their children; the decision to hand the reins of a smartphone to kids belongs to them. For some, it will work; for some, it won't. Just as we've seen some kids get better and higher with the use of smartphones, we've also seen some teens record videos of themselves making out and posting out online. The parents decide which path their kids will take.
