Study from Austria: – Smartphone Intry Age at currently nine years!

The company has more than 1000 parents from eight to 14 -year -olds on this subject on behalf of a study. The most important arguments for this decision are security and accessibility, especially for school.

“At 14, more or less, every child has a smartphone,” said Lischka. “The 40-year-olds today received the first mobile phone at the age of ten.” Since the ban on mobile phones in schools, the subject has been “brightly discussed” again. Because the survey has also shown that parents are still worried that the children use their smartphone exaggerated or are confronted with unsuitable content early in social networks. Only about half of the parents take precautions to keep the children on the smartphone against excessive use and problematic content and to protect privacy.

Danger of just like violence or pornography
Dangers for the children see many parents who have access to unsuitable content, such as violent scenes, pornography or extremist or manipulative content and fake news on the internet or social networks (73 percent of the respondents), in bullying and the abuse of privacy (65 percent each) as well as for subscription and in-ap-app “Even if real addiction of mobile phones is not a mass phenomenon, we find a problematic use of smartphones in all age groups. For children and adolescents, the behavior of the parents has an important role model,” said psychotherapist and search expert Julia Dier.

This is why parents often intervene in the mobile phone use of their children. About half limits the screen times or app technically (51 percent), 43 percent adjust the settings to protect personal data or to check the browser courses and chats (27 percent). At the same time, about 70 percent of the view must be blocked through technical protective devices that unsuitable content and non -expropriated purchases are blocked. An extensive range of advice and support is positively evaluated, four out of ten respondents see services for child and youth protection in stores as useful. Because even parents with four, five and six -year -olds and wanted to buy the first mobile phone in the ‘three’ business, Lischka reported.

Initiative “Safe” helps with the institutions on the children’s mobile phone
That is why “Three” set up the “safe” initiative to enable children to become as safe as possible in the digital world. In its stores everywhere in Austria, the provider offers a new service with the name “Children’s & Youth Protection Go”, which is offered by the customers of all operators. Supporting store employees with important attitudes, such as setting up children’s accounts (iCloud or Gmail), the determination of screen times for apps, activating contents blocking, forwarding questions to legal guardians and, if desired, also when setting up the location search assignment.

“Three” also concluded a collaboration with the Austrian start-up “Ohana”, which developed a child safety app in 2022. “To date there has often been only supervision. But no one has thought about what that does with the child and the relationship between parents and child,” said “Ohana” co-founder Christian Orgler. The children must also get acquainted with the subject and have the right to privacy. The app does not monitor chat and browser courses, but is only warned if the children come across inappropriate websites. There is a learning mode that makes the Leer apps possible, but no social platforms, or a sleep mode where everything is derived. However, a subscription must be completed by the app.