My kids are 10, 9, and 8 years old and they have cell phones. I tend to be quite protective and after being told i needed to loosen up and let them go to the park alone and such I compromised with the phones. I can easily keep tabs on them, they can call me if anything goes wrong at the park or at their friends houses and they have no excuses regarding the time when i say they need to be home at a certain time. it just makes me feel better as well as lets them grow up a bit (albeit on my terms). They are not extravagant. The range in price being 9.99-19.99 and I buy the minutes as we go. Some of the pit falls have been the kids call me at work ALL day long. And although I have repeatedly told them to keep the phones in their book bags until they leave school they still bring them out and i am inconvenienced by having to go to the school and pick them up. The teachers and principals also seem to judge me based on the fact that the kids have them...like they are spoiled or something. The kids are also allowed to only call me, my husband, and their aunt (the same people who would pick them up from school or day care in an emergency situation) but they have given the numbers out to their friends, who call incessantly. I don't pay attention to the stories about cell phones altering brain development. stories come out like that about everything, if we were ruled by the scare tactics employed by drug companies, the media and others we wouldn't leave our homes. If something more substantial came about I would look at alternatives. One other weird pitfall that came about as a result of the kids having cells was their father (who I am divorced from) tried to have a judge order that he could call their cell phones (he is not allowed unsupervised contact with them). He wanted to be able to pump the kids for info etc. Thankfully the judge said no but I would have had to reevaluate the importance of my comfort if the judge had ordered that ok.