Whether they want to talk, text or take a stab at the latest video game, most of your kids want their own cell phones.
Research shows children as young as 8 are getting them.
How young is too young, and how much should you monitor their child's phone activity?
It's a familiar sight - a busy seventh-grader checking his phone messages.
Adrian Barker is 12.
His mom got him his first cell phone when he was 9.
"Adrian went to school and kept bugging me for a cell phone,” Jeannie Gniazdowski, Adrian’s mom said.
“Everybody had a cell phone. And it took a long time, and then I was like OK."
Like many parents, Gniazdowski was reluctant to buy her son a cell phone.
She says a PTA meeting opened her eyes to the ways kids sometimes mis-use their phones and other high-tech gadgets.
"They gave us some information on how children do little codes, like 'somebody's behind my back,’” Gniazdowski said. “And other little clues to let you know that kids are up to something."
The cell phone industry is also helping parents keep an eye on their children with safeguards built into the newer, more sophisticated smart phones.
"So, for example, if you went here to the app store and I click that, once you hit save, you then draw a lock pattern and it saves,” Rachel Bowman of U.S. Cellular said. “So, whenever you go into that application, you have to do a lock pattern in order to access it. So, it gives parents some control over phone use."
The web site, WebMd.com, also offers you guidelines when and if you do decide to buy your kid that first phone.
Among them -- buy a basic phone, set limits on minutes and text messages, designate times the phone needs to be turned off, and teach good behavior.
Parents should stress that kids should never communicate with strangers, or send inappropriate messages or photos.
Gniazdowski says she has passwords to both of her children's Facebook accounts, and routinely checks for anything suspicious.
You may wonder how much checking you should do.
We asked a local child psychologist about the difference between monitoring and spying.
“If we're talking about monitoring your child's behavior, there's no danger that's done by parents reasonably monitoring what's going on in their children's lives,” Dr. Mike Chiglinsky of ACA Counseling Services said. “When it becomes a problem is when parents go overboard.”
Dr. Chiglinsky says as children get older, they can better handle the responsibility of a phone. But many kids in elementary school are getting them now.
A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found about a third of kids between eight and 10 have a cell phone.
There's no perfect age to get your child a cell phone. Dr. Chiglinsky says it depends on the individual maturity level of the child, and the boundaries parents draw for them.
Gniazdowski says it's like a neighborhood watch.
She even watches out for other kids who communicate with her children.
Her son, Adrian, says he doesn't really mind all the monitoring.
"I kind of understand how it is because of all these people running around picking up children and sitting there constantly bugging them," Adrian said.
A mature answer from a child who's proving he is old enough to have his own phone.
