Erik Robb's pockets are filled with the usual 10-year-old's loot - a Game Boy, Pokemon cards and holographic temporary tattoos he buys at a dollar store.
Then, there's the cell phone with the built-in flashlight, a birthday gift from his mother.
"If I have to give him some independence, that's a way to keep him next to me," said his mother, Mary Ebert-Robb.
Erik, who is headed to fifth grade at an Auburn charter school this fall, is the first of his friends to carry a cell phone, but he's not the first in his age group.Kids ages 10 to 14 are the fastest-growing segment of the population getting cell phones, according to Lewis Ward, a senior research analyst for IDC, a market research company in Framingham, Mass. About 5.8 million children in that age group carry cell phones and that number is expected to grow 22 percent next year, Ward said.
Children even younger are getting wired as well. About 400,000 kids ages 5 to 9 carry cell phones and 20 percent more will have them next year, Ward said. "With adults, those who are going to get them already have them," Ward said. "So it's a function of reaching younger and younger demographics. ... It's a relatively untapped market."
Cell phone and toy companies have noticed. Mattel is introducing a My Scene Barbie cell phone this summer, Disney will partner with Sprint next year to launch wireless phone service for kids, and a new company, Firefly Mobile, has begun selling glow-in-the-dark cell phones at Target stores.
Firefly, based in Chicago, is unabashedly targeting 8-to 12-year-olds, said chief executive Robin Abrams. "It's a unique demographic. They're not teenagers yet and they're not little kids," she said. "They're right at that breaking point when their lives get more complicated in terms of logistics and scheduling and they're just starting to go out on their own."
The phone caters to 'tweens by offering parents a certain amount of control with pre-paid minutes, buttons to call "Mom" and "Dad," and programmable incoming and outgoing calls. The Firefly Mobile phone, which sells for $99.99, also drops the distractions with no text messaging, video games or cameras, but amps up the "ooh" factor with fun ring tones, animation and flashing lights.
"Kids like the idea of being close to their parents," Abrams said. "It gives kids a higher level of confidence."
But Bernardo J. Carducci, a psychology professor at Indiana University Southeast, thinks young children with cell phones do the exact opposite. While he concedes phones are important and even necessary during emergencies, he worries children won't learn important decision-making skills if they're constantly calling mom or dad for advice.
"There are real big developmental concerns," he said, adding that instant gratification and the failure to learn how to plan ahead are also detriments.
David Anderegg, a child psychologist and author of a book on parenting anxiety, "Worried All the Time," thinks young children with cell phones are plain ridiculous.
"It's an unneccessary expense and I certainly don't think there's any good reason for kids to have cell phones," he said. "It gives a false sense of security in any case - middle school kids need to be supervised by adults and they should always be supervised by adults."
Jon-Paul Kuykendall, 13, of Orangevale, Calif., has been begging for a cell phone since he was a sixth-grader. But he's not getting one until he's a sophomore in high school and he starts driving, insists his mother, Diane Kuykendall.
"There just doesn't seem to be a need," she said, adding that her son has never been unable to reach her. "I think a cell phone is a tool for kids to learn how to use as a tool. It's not a social device."