My smart-ass inlaws, one of whom works in the tech industry and the other one close to it, harangued me the last time we got together because my husband and I don’t let our SEVEN year-old boys own an iPhone, or have video games, etc. They tried to tell me the kids should be learning programming *now* (when one of them is still learning to read! Sheesh!). Wish I could send them this article anonymously. ;)
This reminds me of my own father right before I turned 16. I told my father he should buy me a car because I could drive now. LOL! Naturally he said he would not do it, but I could buy my own car and pay for the insurance if I wanted to. Once I researched how much it cost, then well I was riding with friends to school.
Maybe when he asks you can do the same approach of I will not buy one, but you can have one if you can afford it?
“They tried to tell me the kids should be learning programming *now*”
Programming is not a bad skill, and is a LOT DIFFERENT than giving a kid an I-PHONE with Internet access. Age 7 may be a bit young, but learning programming early did work well with my kids. The trick is to keep them off of the Internet, and that’s not always easy (I had to physically remove wireless antennas from our laptops, for example). Obviously, you also need to supervise the time they are learning programming too.