I got mine at 11 which was younger than that. Thankfully I was quite well behaved already and knew not to share personal information online. Beforehand I had been using a family desktop computer. I was very cagey about who even obtained my phone number.
A lot of services today do require a cell number for sign-up, as a form of “expensive ID” that one can’t just make more of.
My guess is that a lot of kids might be kinda conditioned to provide it to services, since these days, they’re probably already handing it over if they’re getting a Google account or something.
All this is assuming that the kid has a cell phone with service. I suspect that it’d be easier, from a technical standpoint, to keep a kid from cell service — which actually costs something and is harder to share — than Internet access.
Not a hard link, but first grade is normally 6-7 years old, so eighth grade is 13-14.
I got mine at 11 which was younger than that. Thankfully I was quite well behaved already and knew not to share personal information online. Beforehand I had been using a family desktop computer. I was very cagey about who even obtained my phone number.
A lot of services today do require a cell number for sign-up, as a form of “expensive ID” that one can’t just make more of.
My guess is that a lot of kids might be kinda conditioned to provide it to services, since these days, they’re probably already handing it over if they’re getting a Google account or something.
All this is assuming that the kid has a cell phone with service. I suspect that it’d be easier, from a technical standpoint, to keep a kid from cell service — which actually costs something and is harder to share — than Internet access.