This thread resonates with me because my 10 year old is begging for a phone and I feel like it's just a year or two more that I can hold off. Many of her friends have devices by now (mostly their old parent's phones that just aren't working like a phone that calls out or accepts calls in, but have every other feature) and a good chunk of them (a quarter?) have free reign. I have a friend who has given her kid devices for years (at age 6, we visited and the girl had two ipads, a computer, and an iphone that didn't call out) and gave her free reign. That friend boasts that her kid is really good at computers and I'm sure she is. But... I am much much more conservative. I just think my kid won't be able to keep herself off her phone so I am going to have to have very strict rules.