
Concerns about children having mobile phones range from the prospect of expensive bills, unmonitored Internet use and a lack of easy parental controls, yet up to 90 percent of parents liked the idea of a child having a mobile phone in case of emergency.
More than 1 in 10 admitted they would buy a new phone for a child as encouragement for good behaviour or good results at school.
"It is reassuring for parents to be in constant contact with their children, but there are clearly concerns about just how careful a young child will be with their own mobile phone," Hannah Bouckley, editor of Recombu, said.