SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Brandon Gonzales has been carrying his black Pantech cellphone with the slide-out keyboard for two years. Brandon is 12.
And he’s certainly not unusual. In the last decade, the age of kids packing their first cellphone has been dialing back younger and younger.
This month, as millions of students swarm back to school, it’s estimated that more than 75 percent of all U.S. teens have a cellphone.
And “tweens” — kids ages 9 to 12 — might be the fastest-growing cellphone market out there.
“The age a child gets a first cellphone is getting progressively younger. Parents want to be in touch with their kids,” said John Breyault, who authored a new guide on tweens and cellphones for the National Consumers League in Washington, D.C.