Colman Noctor: Why let a tech company decide when your child is ready to own a smartphone?

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Despite the digital age of consent in Ireland being 16 years of age, which incidentally is concerned with data sharing, there seems to be a belief that 12 or 13 years of age is the ‘appropriate’ age for children to have a smartphone.
I have often wondered who decided this? And why is this age viewed as the right one?