Idaho is the Second Safest State For Kids to Own a Phone

I love that pretty much everyone has a phone these days. If I need something, or someone needs me, a call or a text and you can reach anyone. I’ll also admit that I am still wary of the accessibility that comes with a phone.

Because of that, I still have monitoring apps on each of my kids’ phones. I can see where they are and which apps they have been using and I can limit their time and access to certain phone features. But a recent study says that my kids in Idaho aren’t at as much of a risk as kids in other states.

REPORT: Idaho is One of the Safest States For Kids to Own Phones

Idaho was ranked behind just one other state in child phone safety, Mississippi. I have to admit, I was surprised to see Mississippi at the top of the list. None of the states around us in the west made the list and technically we tied with Maine but the list placed us in 2nd. The closest state geographically to Idaho to make the list was New Mexico, and they ranked 10th.

Idaho ranking second in the United States was based on just two criteria by WellPCB. They gathered data on each state for the average age kids get a cell phone and cybercrime complaints.

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The average age for kids in Idaho to get a phone is 11.95, the highest age of any state in the top 10. Idaho registered 153.9 cybercrime complaints per 100,000 residents, giving Idaho an overall phone danger score of 10.76.

For comparison, Mississippi had an overall score of just 2.68, so we weren’t even close to beating them.

Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash - 1

WellPCB manufactures electronics, which is what prompted them to check the data on how technology is affecting and being used by kids. The data was sent to us in an email so we don't have a link to the full results. data was gathered from a Secure Data recovery report and the FBI 2024 IC3 report.

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