Annemarie Quill: Too young for phone

I AM toying with the idea of getting my daughter a mobile phone for her ninth birthday.

In his report on children's cellphone usage, James Fuller finds pretty much all college kids have phones and many intermediate school kids have cell phones.

A couple of my colleagues have bought their children phones when at primary school.

While not wanting to be Sally Ridge-like with my daughter, there are lots of good arguments for a phone - staying in touch and safety are the practical ones.

But there are other great benefits of a phone as a learning tool -helping spelling, taking photos and videos and using apps.

There are risks in giving children phones, such as text and social media bullying, but as they will encounter this anyway, it is not a good reason for banning phones.

But dropping an iPhone accidentally down the toilet is, so on that basis, I think I will try to resist.