Carphone Warehouse has published new research into the mobile web behaviour of 8 to 15 year olds in the UK.

The survey, which was compiled by YouGov, revealed that 2.8 million of these children - including almost a quarter of 8 to 12 year olds - had a smartphone.

Vodafone UK has launched a free Android app called Vodafone Guardian that’s designed to help parents and carers protect young people from inappropriate use of the internet and unwanted calls and texts.

Children and parents can arrange for certain calls or text messages to be blocked - and internet access can be restricted at certain times of the day.

The European Commission has worked with mobile handset manufacturers, operating system providers, internet service providers, broadcasters, social networks and mobile operators to form a new coalition that aims to make the internet better and safer for children.

There are 28 founding members of the ‘Coalition to make the Internet a better place for kids’.

One in ten children under the age of 10 owns an iPhone, according to a UK survey from cloud-based internet security company Westcoastcloud.

In addition, one in twenty primary school children now own an iPad. The research also shows that one in ten parents feel it’s OK for a child as young as 4 to own a mobile phone.

Mark Bridge writes:

We have a new "mobile phone cancer" report to read - but, despite the headline, it offers no concrete reassurance or firm proof.

The main problem, as we've said on many occasions, is that proving 'absolute safety' is nigh-on impossible... particularly when the technology and the usage patterns keep changing.