My son wants a cell phone. Should I give him one?

My son is ten years old and of late he has been pestering me to get him a cell phone. He wanted the one I use and said I had better change to a new slick model. Since that was way too funny, he dropped the idea. Now he wants the slightly older Nokia Model I keep as a stand – by. His arguments interspersed with undeniable logic literally leave me gasping, with horror and shock. Horror, at his determination to wheedle a phone out of me at any cost and shock, that he has grown up so much! Sample them.

He needs a phone because he might get lost. The city has recently had a spate of kidnappings. To make him more aware I made him read the articles in newspapers and gave him a long lesson of safe behavior. He goes to a tutorial and basketball after school hours a few days a week. He goes chaperoned of course. But he tells me if the Driver shows up late, he can ring me up immediately and inform me. If his Basketball gets cancelled, I can arrange to get him from school without delay. Apparently, all his classmates have perfect arrangements with their parents or have hand phones, pagers, transmitters or maybe a tie-up with the school admin too complicated for me to use! These are not his best arguments by far. Our condo lift has got stuck recently once or twice. Apparently having a cell phone would make it easier for him to get in touch with us when he gets stuck in the lift! I think he thinks of these while sleeping! When I argue that he has already lost 3 watches this year and the phone won’t last long in his hands, he tells me his friend has lost three phones and still has got a phone. This friend is two years older and uses public transport to school – if I try to point that, the argument takes an entirely new direction – his friend knows driving and driving and the car keys are the next on my son’s list!

My list of arguments is long and he has an answer to all. The only way I have got my way so far has been by bullying.

He will lose the phone – He wont, he will be careful!
Phone will affect his tender brain – It affects our brains too
He doesn’t need a phone – He does of course, badly
All his trousers / school dress pockets are torn – I can repair them
The shorts he goes out to play in do not have pockets – I can customize them to carry a phone
He doesn’t need one – He does, badly
He is way too young – What do I mean by that?
I cannot afford it – That’s the reason he wants the old model
HE DOESN’T NEED A PHONE, HE IS TOO YOUNG – uh puhleeeze

I really cannot fathom when he graduated from playing games on my mobile to needing a phone as a status symbol (uh-huh). And I honestly don’t know how long the bullying will work. Any ideas? When should a child start using a mobile phone?