What age did your children get cell phones?

My children will be teenagers in the next 1-2 years. We are considering getting them cell phones but my husband thinks the kids are too young for phones. He is mostly worried about starting them with bad habits being on their phones too much. As it is, they use their iPads for games and YouTube for several hours a day.

I feel it would serve the benefit of providing contact with them in the case of emergencies. They are never home alone but you never know when an aging grandparent may have a situation which requires the kids to contact us.

What did you decide with your children and what seemed to work you for in terms of emergency contacting?

UPDATE: thank you for all the great info. I’m at work and so have only made it through about 1/3 of the responses but plan on reading them all to get an idea of the general sentiment and other ideas. I’m happy to have all this feedback, most of which is very useful and reassuring! Technology is a wonderful tool but definitely has its drawbacks. I think with careful controls, starting with cell phones around this age can give us as parents a good piece of mind.