Is an 18-month-old too young to have an iPhone? This influencer thinks not

The set up screen on iPhone (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

Actor and influencer Elfira Loy picked up an iPhone for her son.
Being only 18 months old, he probably won't be reading this.
But his mother's getting plenty of flak about it all.

Malaysian actor and social media influencer Elfira Loy is getting a ton of flak online after she bought an iPhone for her son. That might not be such a big deal, except the kid's 18 months old.

That, apparently, is enough for the mother to be pilloried online, according to a Malay Mail report.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CA2Am47FMLE/

(My son is) going to be eight months old tomorrow! I got him an iPhone so he won't try to use mummy's phone

I'd be more concerned about getting a case on that bad boy, to be honest.

Snark aside, this does raise a question that's been asked time and time again – how young is too young in terms of phones?

Remembering having two kids of that age myself and still struggling from the PTSD, I'd have bought as many iPhones as it took to get two minutes of peace and quiet. The actor says she only bought this iPhone to stop her boy from playing with hers and again, I can definitely see where she's coming from.

But now we've established that I'm a bad father I'm going to pass this over to you – is an 18-month-old too young for an iPhone in this context and if so, why?

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.