Our three-year-old daughter recently snatched my phone and knew exactly what to do.

Like a teenager, she opened my camera app and took some great selfies with her 10-month-old brother.

It was a piece of cake for her. The photos are amazing. I’m so impressed.

But I don’t like it. As a father of five and a former high school English teacher, my opinion on cell phones for kids is more… rotary dial than 5G, you might say.

Devices like cell phones were a daily struggle in my classroom. Most of my students put them away when asked, but the temptation and distraction from learning was always there.

Just ask other teachers.

Educators in Idaho and across the country have stepped up efforts to limit or eliminate cellphone use in their schools. Several Idaho schools have implemented new restrictions this year. At least 11 states have passed laws or enacted policies banning or restricting cellphone use, Education Week recently reported.

Data backs up that concern—and my cynicism about the ubiquitous little things. According to the Pew Research Center, 54% of teens say they would have a hard time giving up social media. A 2024 study found that kids’ smartphone use is linked to lower test scores, Men’s Journal reports.

The concerns go far beyond learning. The phone-based environment in which children are growing up today is “hostile to human development,” as a recent article in the Atlantic points out, citing rates of depression and anxiety among adolescents that have skyrocketed since 2010. Among girls ages 10 to 14, suicide rates have risen 131% over this period (my emphasis).

That’s a shocking statistic for this father of four daughters.

But despite growing concerns and research, mobile phones bring benefits to children and families.

Just ask other parents.

Mothers and fathers in the Gem State are fighting against a ban on cell phones in schools because they fear they will not be able to reach their children in an emergency.

This is understandable, as school shootings have increased in recent years. After the massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, my wife and I even questioned whether we should send our children to school for a while in 2022.

A year earlier, I was on the scene as a reporter after a student fired several shots at Rigby Middle School, not far from our home in East Idaho. No one died, but two students and a janitor were injured.

I was struck by the harsh details of the scene: the long line of cars outside the school; distraught parents rushing to pick up their children; children hugging their parents; distraught families gathered in the parking lot; a father who had to be restrained after breaking through a yellow police cordon in search of his daughter.

I can imagine that in such a situation, a direct line to one’s own child is invaluable.

But the simple conveniences of a mobile phone also have their value.

The other day, my wife and I watched as other children left our daughter’s middle school after volleyball practice on command, cell phones in hand, responding to text messages saying their parents had come to pick them up outside of school.

We had to wait until our 12-year-old, who doesn’t have a cell phone, spotted us through a window after gathering her things.

For me and my wife, this is no big deal, but for our daughter, who is starting middle school this year, it is.

All her friends, it seems, have smartphones. As she enters her teens, she sees her classmates with them, her teachers with them, her coaches and youth leaders with them, and her parents with them.

“Where are all the studies on the effects these things have on adults?” I’m just waiting for her to ask me.

And one day, I’m sure, she’ll be as glued to her cell phone as I am.

This raises a difficult question for me and my wife: Is it better to get her one now and set some boundaries, or keep waiting until we feel she is “ready”?

I don’t have an answer. Maybe you do.

How do you handle cell phones for your children? What works and what doesn’t? Is there a preferred age or maturity level we should look out for? Send your answers to (email protected).