When Kids Get Mobiles

'About 51% of German children ages 6 to 13 report having their own mobile phone, according to a report released last year by the Media Education Research Association Southwest’s long-term KIM study in Germany.

But when Zaske and her family moved to California’s San Francisco Bay Area, Sophia entered fourth grade and became the only student in her class without a smartphone, Zaske said, and the girl noticed.

“So she tells me, ‘I think I might need a phone, Mom.’ And I say, ‘What for? You didn’t need it before; why do you need it now?’ ” said Zaske, author of the upcoming book “Achtung Baby: An American Mom on the German Art of Raising Self-Reliant Children,” to publish in January.'