Reasonably, I think that at least middle school age is a good age.

Well, perhaps not even quite that young. Maybe high school. If I had a child in middle school, I suppose I really wouldn't want my child calling me up and saying, "Oops, I forgot. I was supposed to have practice today."

I suppose the kid should just really prove him or herself responsible enough to have a cell phone.

I agree about the 'maturity' factor - if you believe they are able to handle the responsibilities of taking care of a phone without abusing their privileges. Generally, a kid should get a cellphone probably sometime while they are in middle school. Elementary school would probably be too early and getting one during high school is fine too but it would probably be better to get one before. I never had a cell phone until my freshmen year of high school and I really wished I had one at least a year before. You'll find it very useful to give your child a cell phone during certain situations. Of course there might be certain planning situations where you might have to give your child a cell phone at an early age because of dropping/picking them up.

I think that kids can have a cell phone at an early age, but the cell phone shouldn't have many features, like texting which seems to be all the rage these day.

Personally, I don't think that texting is very fun, I never use that feature.

Maybe they can only have a few numbers, and cen be only used certain times of the day.

I got my very own cellphone 4 years ago (age 11). I think a child is ready to get a cellphone around 10-12. At that age, they starting to grow up to teens and at that age they are starting to have responsibility.

I strongly believe that cell phones shouldn't be given based on age, but rather maturity. I have seen some people who are 16-22 for example that spam SMS and calls to people, racking up their phone bills for their parents. On the other hand, there are some younger kids who are responsible and do not use them unless it's for emergencies.

I was personally given both a debit card and a cell phone at age 11-12, but I also knew how to keep complete control over both of them. I never used the credit card as it was for emergencies, and only used the cell phone for calling family if I needed something. Aside from that, nobody ever knew my phone number or anything.

I feel that these are really both a necessity for kids because they can run into situations where they will be needed. At the same time, it should be based upon how much you feel that you can trust your children not to make the wrong decisions with these. To be honest it's kind of a risky situation overall, especially with peer pressure.

If nothing else you could always just use a pre-paid cell phone. This will allow them to use X minutes(which you can obviously monitor - you're buying the cards after all, right?) and this will ensure that they are not using their minutes for wasteful reasons.

I had a cellphone at around... 13? I didn't really start using it until a few years later, though. I think it's fine (while they're younger, around 14 years of age) if you start them off as using it for emergency situations (like having to be picked up) as opposed to letting them waste their whole day (and ruin their thumbs) by texting on them all the time, haha.

If they don't seem to have a need, I'd hold it off as long as I could, really.

I think 13 is a good age to get a phone, but the phones these days have way too many features for a kid that age. they won't treat it like its a phone, but like access to the net, music player blah blah blah. Just something that makes calls and sends sms' thats really all they need.

...that or an old hand-me-down