<p><b>25% of Irish 6-Year-Olds Own a Smartphone</b></p><p style="text-align: start;"> </p><p style="text-align: start;">One in four children in Ireland aged 6 years old owns a smartphone, new research finds.</p><p style="text-align: start;">A survey done for Irish online safety charity CyberSafeKids asked 900 parents with children aged 5 to 17 about their children's smartphone use.</p><p style="text-align: start;"> </p><p style="text-align: start;">The survey found that 24% of 6-year-olds had a smartphone — and only 28% of parents used parental controls on their children's devices.</p><p style="text-align: start;">The survey also found that more than half of parents did not feel confident about teaching their children how to stay safe online.</p><p style="text-align: start;"> </p><p style="text-align: start;">Alex Cooney, CEO of CyberSafeKids, said the research shows a "worrying gap" between children's internet use and their parents' ability to support them to be safe online.</p><p style="text-align: start;">The charity released the survey results on Safer Internet Day on February 6. Begun in the European Union in 2004, this day aims to raise awareness of a "safer and better internet for all."</p><p style="text-align: start;"> </p><p style="text-align: start;">On the same day, CyberSafeKids also released a guideline called Better Digital Parenting. It offers advice on things like how to set parental controls on online devices, and says that very young children should never use the internet alone.</p><p style="text-align: start;"> </p><p style="text-align: start;">However, Cooney believes that parents are not the only ones responsible for keeping children safe online. Schools need to offer online safety education, governments must make stronger regulations, and social media companies should do more to help, she wrote in The Irish Times.</p><p style="text-align: start;"> </p><p style="text-align: start;">Many social media companies, including X and Facebook, already require users to be at least 13 years old. And last year, the US state of Utah even banned people under 18 from creating social media accounts without their parents' permission.</p><p style="text-align: start;"> </p><p style="text-align: start;">However, in 2022, research from UK communications regulator Ofcom found that a third of children aged between 8 and 17 with a social media profile had their age set to 18 or over.</p><p style="text-align: start;"> </p><p style="text-align: start;"> </p><p><span><span>1. Do you imagine a lot of 6-year-olds in your country own a smartphone?</span></span></p><p>2. <span><span>Would you feel confident teaching a kid how to stay safe online?</span></span></p><p>3. <span><span>At what age do you think young children should be allowed to use the internet by themselves?</span></span></p><p>4. <span><span>Do you agree that online safety education should be offered at schools?</span></span></p><p>5. <span>How old were you when you got your first smartphone?</span></p><p>6. <span><span>How much time do you spend on your phone? Has this changed over time?</span></span></p><p>7. <span><span>Do you try to limit the amount of time you spend online?</span></span></p><p>8. <span><span>Do you think you'd find it easy to give up your smartphone for a month?</span></span></p><p> </p><p style="text-align: start;"><a href="https://engoo.com/app/daily-news/article/25-of-irish-6-year-olds-own-a-smartphone/_jYA_Mu3Ee6zW7tUMTUSSg" target="_blank" class="ke-link">https://engoo.com/app/daily-news/article/25-of-irish-6-year-olds-own-a-smartphone/_jYA_Mu3Ee6zW7tUMTUSSg</a></p>
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