I felt the same way as you but one of the things that pushed me over the edge was the whole find my iphone thing.  It allows me to know where my daughter is if I am ever worried.  Yes you have the issue of them being immersed in instagram and texting and everything but I try to set boundaries with them and monitor them as best I can.

My almost 15 year old does not have a phone.  I think it is crazy how many kids are getting phones, even in elementary school!  And not just an old flip phone for emergencies, a full out smart phone with 24/7 access to the internet..  My sons quit taking the bus to school after the first week because the kids were showing inappropriate videos and images to them, on their PHONES.  I survived my school years without a cell phone? 

I completely agree and am glad to be in the company of parents that have some kind of sensibility about this idea of having a phone. Access to a phone when needed is one thing, however, unlimited, access to the internet 24/7 is not a good idea. My son has a Kindle with Mobicip which allows me to control the content he has access to...when he gets a little more mature, the browser will allow me to cut him loose slowly with an accountability mode....he can search a bit more freely, but knows that I can access the full content of what he is seeing. It's a process.... 

Some of the smartest prodigies got started playing with devices and gadgets earlier than age 9 and are running some of the largest tech companies in the world so sure deprive your kids of technology in the midst of a technological revolution 

10 year ago just for emergencies would work, but that's just not how the landscape is these days.  You ahve to make sure you don't let your kid feel excluded otherwise they'll open themselves up to bullying.  You should look into phones that only let you access certain things/give them a rigid texting/data plan

We live in a rural community. My daughter who will be 12 in December, has a cell phone. It was a tough decision, but in the end, we have her phone set up so we can track her. She calls us to check in. For us it was a matter of being safe. The ability to be able to call home, or send a text if she needs anything has been a great boost in our communication. I think each child's maturity level should be considered. We established rules and enforce them.

Hi, I was hesitant too. Especially since I dropped the kids off at their school and picked them up and attended all their sporting events. I always knew where they were. When my son was in the 7th Grade he was very ill and hospitalized several times with Type 1 Diabetes. I decided to get him a phone to get ahold of me in an emergency and also he could look up the carbohydrate content of foods on the internet with it. Other than that he would have had to wait until he was in high school with a job for a phone!

Since we homeschool, I don't think my 11-year-old son needs a phone yet. But, yes, he has friends that are in public school and they do have phones. The world is a different place today than when I was 11..so not sure what I would do if my son was in public school. I may feel safer if he did have a phone.