My 9 year old son asks for an i-phone at least once a week. I answer with one word: No.
I see absolutely no reason for a 9 year old to have a smart phone. There are plenty of non-smart phones that have qwerty keypads (for texting) and mp3 players built in.
Why does a 8 year old need to text? What legitimate reason?
And yes, I text. I have a plan that gives me 250 texts/month. It’s cheaper than a data plan.