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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Esther Addley

‘It’s tough for parents’: should young children have their own phone?

Young boy using mobile phone intently.
Ofsted reports that 69% of children aged three and four in the UK regularly use phones to go online. Photograph: MBI/Alamy

How old is old enough to have your own mobile phone? For once, your children may be right that everyone else is getting them younger than you think.

New research from Ofcom has found that a fifth of three- and four-year-olds now have a phone of their own, and are already using them to watch streaming services, use social media and play games online.

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