There is no problem giving phones to kids as soon as they can read: just disable all data (including wifi!). There are plenty of useful (translators, scientific

There is no problem giving phones to kids as soon as they can read: just disable all data (including wifi!). There are plenty of useful (translators, scientific calculators, maps/compass), informative (ebooks, kiwix) and entertainment apps (music/video), and even games that don't require permanent data access. Communication (ostensibly the main reason parents are giving them phones) works fine with just voice and SMS. It also helps a lot that (1) AFAIK pretty much all primary schools (<12 years) in our country forbid phones in our country, and (2) we as parents don't spend much time on phones ourselves (we do spend a lot of time behind a laptop, but they usually just see screens full of boring text and number tables, so they don't associate them with something desirable), and (3) pretty much none of the other kids they know have a smartphone. I expect things will be very different in middle school (>12 years), but we still have a few years to revise and refine our strategy.