MY DAUGHTER turned to me with that look learned from half a dozen Disney princesses, who all possess the uncanny ability of obtaining whatever and whomever they desire merely by sustained bouts of doe-eyed blinking.
''Dad,'' she said, ''can I have a mobile phone? Please?''
She tilted her head, a picture of pathos. I foresee a future as an actress.
''Please?''
The request came as a surprise, mainly because my daughter is five.
She hasn't even started school. Carefully, I contemplated my response. Saying no would unleash the full fury of Hades. Saying yes would contravene every value I hold dear. Tough call.
''Puh-leeeease?!?!?''
I should have expected it. Mobile phones are increasingly common among kids. One teacher at an eastern suburbs primary school says about two-thirds of pupils in years three to six have mobiles.
''By sixth class, they pretty much all have one,'' she says. ''We teach about mobiles in technology classes, but we don't allow the students to send texts or make calls in school hours.''
She's backed up by Mobile Me, a 2009 report by UTS and Sydney University researchers that found that about three-quarters of 11- to 15-year-olds in NSW public schools have their own mobiles.
''Mobile phone ownership among these children and young people is clearly increasing . . . ,'' the researchers wrote. ''The age at which young people get mobiles appears to be falling.''
And fast. The 15-year-olds in the study generally didn't get their mobiles until year six; whereas the 11-year-olds had theirs by year four. At this rate, my daughter's friends will probably have mobiles by year two, when they're seven. Particularly since the research also showed that girls tend to get phones earlier than boys.
So, what are the arguments for and against?
The arguments for centre around independence, convenience and safety.
''There are times when it is appropriate and beneficial for students to have access to a mobile phone,'' says the NSW Department of Education and Training. ''New technologies have the potential to benefit student learning and schools encourage students to use their mobile phones in a way which reflects the core values being taught in schools. The values of respect, responsibility, care and fairness.''
As the Mobile Me report concluded: ''We found that mobile phones support kids by helping them to be independent. Mobiles also help kids organise their daily lives, support their relationships . . . provide entertainment, and help them feel safer.''
The arguments against include the threat of cancer, cyberbullying and shortened attention spans.
In 2008, Swedish researchers found that kids and teens are five times more likely to get brain cancer if they use mobile phones, prompting fears of a future epidemic.
''If the question is do I believe that mobile phones can cause brain cancer, the answer is yes, I do,'' Aussie neurosurgeon Dr Charles Teo told 60 Minutes. ''I'm incredibly worried, concerned, depressed at the number of kids I'm seeing coming in with brain tumours.''
For his own kids and everyone else, Teo fervently recommends the use of speaker-phones.
The attention span argument is interesting. While yoga and meditation teachers exhort us to quieten the chattering mind, mobile phones amplify and add to the chatter. As communication is sliced and diced into bits and bytes, neuroscientist Dr Norman Doidge argues that people will increasingly find it difficult to read books and construct arguments. Texting and Twitter are creating an appetite for verbal machine-gunning.
OK, but I don't plan to be some latter-day King Canute. Personally, I'd prefer not to let my daughter have a phone till she's about 16 but I doubt my wife and I will be able to hold out that long. When will the time be right? At this point, I do what any modern parent does in a time of doubt. I consult Robin Barker.
''We wouldn't have allowed a mobile before high school,''says the Baby Love author. ''Why? They didn't need one, they were sure to lose or break it, too distracting . . . Having said that I guess there are certain situations in contemporary life – separated parents for example – where limited use of a mobile might have a place before high school. And perhaps some situations in rural settings.''
High school? That sounds sensible.
I don't really buy the line that mobiles help kids to be independent. On the contrary, mobiles – especially those with GPS tracking devices – help parents maintain an illusion of contact and control. I don't really buy the line about making kids safer. I mean, why all the fear? For most Aussie kids, the world is pretty safe, and a mobile won't prevent your kid from drowning or being hit by a car.
Having disappointed our doe-eyed daughter, my wife and I had her write out the phone numbers of all her grandparents and cousins and stick them on the fridge. She can call them at any time on the landline, we said. Still, she wants to grow up now, which is the eternal prerogative of childhood, so that's hardly the end of it. Saying no will be easy while her kindy classmates don't have phones; once mobiles start appearing in her peers' schoolbags, it'll become harder.
''Kids kick and scream but they get over it,'' says Barker. ''Middle-class children today are catered to on every conceivable level – emotionally, psychologically, materially, you name it. It is probably good for them to have to learn to wait, make do and, when it's appropriate, work towards whatever it is they are desperate for.''
I agree. For the foreseeable future, I expect to hear my daughter saying ''I hate you'' in person, rather than sending me smiley face emoticons via SMS. I can live with that.