A new survey by Cricket Wireless finds:
- The average kid will get their first smartphone by the age of 10.
- The average parent says they got their first piece of tech when they were 11.
- 55% of parents got their kids a smartphone for emergency purposes.
- 47% got them one to help improve their tech skills for the future.
- 46% say their kids showed maturity.
But do parents really trust their kids with their devices?
- Well, 70% of parents insist that they do trust their kids with tech.
- But 66% do put parental controls on the devices for security reasons.
- 62% feel that tech helps their kids social skills.
- And while some parents may be strict when it comes to their kid's tech use, 67% admit their kid will probably have access to tech no matter how strict they may be.
Meanwhile, kids these days may be up on the latest tech trends, but how well do they know technology of the past?
- Well, a separate survey asked kids six to 18 about their knowledge of older tech devices, and many were unable to identify devices that were considered high tech by their parents.
- Believe it or not, 49% of kids had no idea what a landline was, with 51% being able to.
- The percentage that could identify other old tech include:
- Fax machine (38%)
- Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) (29%)
- Floppy disk (28%)
- Answering machine (26%)
- Pager (24%)
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