Implementing mental health promotion. Edinburgh, Scotland: Churchill Livingstone/Elsevier. 2 Jorm, A.F., Korten, A.E. , Jacomb, P.A., Christensen, H., Rodgers, B. & Pollitt, P. (1997). Mental health literacy: A survey of the publicâs ability to recognize mental disorders and their beliefs about the effectiveness of treatment. Medical Journal of Australia, 166, 182-186. 3 Griffiths, K. M., Christensen, H., & Jorm, A. F. (2009). Mental health literacy as a function of remoteness of residence: An Australian national study.
Ruth Peters, a child psychologist in Clearwater, Fla., said most children were not ready for their own phones until age 11 to 14, when they were in middle school.
The topic is being increasingly debated as children get smartphones at an ever younger age. On average, children are getting their first smartphones around age 10, according to the research firm Influence Central, down from age 12 in 2012. For some children, smartphone ownership starts even sooner â including second graders as young as 7, according to internet safety experts.