A majority of kids have smartphones by middle school, study finds

Between 2015 and 2019, the age at which a majority of kids have a smartphone dropped from roughly 13-14 to 11, according to new research.

A new study from Common Sense Media, a non-profit organization that seeks to inform parents about safe technology and media for children, found that 53 percent of kids have their own smartphone by the age of 11. By age 12, more than 69 percent of kids do.

The study, the conclusion of a nationally representative survey of over 1,600 kids aged eight to 18, paints a portrait of the current trends in technology usage among tweens and teens.

In the four years since Common Sense Media's last national tween and teen survey, smartphone ownership has drastically risen for kids in the age groups surveyed.

"When your kids say, 'Everyone else has a phone,' they kind of have a point," Michael Robb, a Senior Research Director at Common Sense Media, said. "You have to think about what it means to give an entire world of information to an 8-year-old," he said.

In 2015, for instance, 24 percent of 8- to 12-year-olds had smartphones. Now, 41 percent of kids in that same age group have them. Even more notable is the fact that almost one in five (19%) 8-year-olds in 2019 now have their own smartphones.

Four years ago, according to Common Sense Media's last study, the age at which the majority of kids had their own smartphones was 13-14, ages at which most students are transitioning from middle to high school. Age 11 is roughly the beginning of middle school.

Wait Until 8th, a nationwide pledge, encourages parents to wait until at least 8th grade, or the age 14, before giving kids their own phones, citing a myriad of adverse health effects in the reasoning behind their decision. As Wait Until 8th explains on their platform, childhood smartphone usage can impact adolescent brain development, impair sleep, negatively impact social relationships, and increase anxiety and depression risk. Mashable's Rebecca Ruiz has written about the skills teens and tweens should cultivate before being handed a smartphone.

"I highly recommend that parents and other caregivers develop a family phone agreement or more general household media plan to prevent such risks," Dr. Sarah Domoff, an assistant professor of clinical psychology at Central Michigan University, said. "A phone agreement or contract should address how the family will respond to unsafe phone use and what signs [a child] would indicate if [their] phone use is interfering with their functioning."

Common Sense Media says one goal of its study is to provide a big-picture portrait of generational trends so that those raising and advocating for young people can make decisions that prioritize their wellbeing.

"If you're going to give a kid a phone, you need to make sure that they're using it responsibly. You need to have conversations beforehand -- and not just about screen time, but also [more] practical conversations, like, 'Can you take care of this? Will you not lose this?'" Robb said. "My 7-year-old loses his water bottle; How can you make sure that he understands the value of a $1,000 smartphone? How do we help [ensure that] this technology gets used safely?"