Owning a mobile phone at a very tender age could have both advantage as well as disadvantages. First of all we have drifted greatly away from the stone age and we live in a technologically advanced age right now and we believe there is still more ahead of us to cover and by so saying, you can deduce that embracing technology, being learned and acquiring some skill on tech will definitely sustain you in the long run.
Kids are fast learners at least if not all but most kids are pretty fast in learning, dominating and implementing ideas. This tells us that whenever they get exposed to something they have great interest in, it's just a matter of time before they get to master in that category.
While it is important to allow kids operate not just mobile phones but including laptop computers and other gadgets to gain full functionality and knowledge over these devices it is also important to look into the side effects of being prolonged or overexposed as this could trigger certain disabilities in the child or mischiefs. Now I would like to clarify based on two different categories of phones being (cellphones and smartphones) cellphones are basic communication devices while a smartphone is an advanced communication device. I personally recommend a child starting with the basic device before advancing.
We all know mobile phones can be very distracting because we pay nearly 80% attention to our gadgets daily a d sometimes we even forget to do some other things in our lives. Now imagine being distracted from a very young age all because your parents or guardians bought you a mobile, that could actually ruine the life of that child from a young age. Therefore, i personally advise to have a normal cellphone at the age of about 15 to 18 years. A cellphone where the basic tings you do is just receiving phone calls and sending SMS (text messages). When the child looks responsible enough to control his or her mind and properly differentiate between good and bad, then they could start owning a smart phone where they can access the Internet, own a social media account or even a web page.
As of owning a social media account this is something that has to be handled with caution and precision because social media could do worse than an ordinary cellphone or smartphone could do. Therefore a child should attain a reasonable stage of maturity before letting his or herself out there on the Internet. We are trying to cure the current sickness on social media therefore, anyone whose coming in newly should have it in mind that the Internet is polluted so as not to get infected.
In summary, there is no defined age for a child to own a cellphone, smartphone or social media accounts, it all lyes in the hands of the parents, carefully monitoring the child and knowing when the right time is for them to own these facilities so as not to destroy their lives at a very tender age.
Images are mine