May 22, 2013
Market researchers say that prices for cell phones has dropped and so has the age of many cell phone owners.
Twelve-year-old Adam Amburgey and his 13-year-old sister, Samantha, got their first Nextel handsets last year as Christmas gifts. Thirteen-year-old Amanda Cline of Bonita Springs is on her second cell phone. She got her first Nokia at age 10.
Amanda can name at least 12 classmates who also have cell phones.
Fort Myers bookstore owner Maleta Wilson McPherson has told her daughter, Jasmine, she'll have to wait until high school. But that hard-line position may be getting less common.
A 2002 Yankee Group survey of cell phone-owning households found that 30 percent of parents with children under 18 had bought handsets for at least one of their kids.
