I'd like to share my perspective - cause I actually DID just buy my 10YO son one.
My eldest son had been pestering me for months to get an ipod touch (one of his best mates has one) We repeatedly said no. Finally after 4 solid months of him asking thrice dialy I made him a deal - if he could save half the purchase price I would pay the other half. It couldn't go to school or out of the home and he had to pay for any songs/apps out of his own money.
He earned the money for the ipod by being paid allowance for taking out the rubbish & doing odd chores around the home. He got extra money if his room was kept tidy and there had to be an improvment in his application at school, otherwise the deal was off.
...and for the next three months his room was spotless, the rubbish was taken out without arguement, he turned his study at school around and he (reluctantly) sacrificed smaller purchases like pokemon and yu-gi-oh cards for the bigger payoff of the ipod.
The big day came, he had saved enough money and made a collossal effort, so we bought one. He chose to buy it online as you got free engraving from the apple shop. I used it as an opportunity to teach him about ordering things online and the problems that can arise: eg. security of the transaction, shipping delays, handoff procedures between courier and manufacturer etc. The shipping time to Australia was supposed to be be 14 days. It ended up being 35 - there were delays at the airport in China, delays in Aust. cutoms and TNT had to come out to our home THRICE when trying to deliver it because the delivery driver coudn't be bothered to get out of the truck and look at our mailbox for the house number
My son was tearing his hair out at the delays, especially when he realised that A: it could be bought locally for the same price and B: That the engraving he ordered meant that there could be no return for replacement if things went wrong when he got it.
It finally arrived in good order - I configured internet access and chose NOT to activate parental controls right away - I wanted to see how he would do first. I also used my spare credit card to register his online account with the apple store.
He downloaded over $200 in apps on my card without thinking about what he was doing -= and downloaded some mature content (not true porn thank god) in a bundle of apps he bought. He was embarrassed by the adult content, not turned on, and sought my help in how to remove it from the Ipod.
He was staggered when I told him how much of my money he had blown on apps and immediately apologised. He is now back to doing odd jobs and keeping his room tidy to pay off the debt he has to me.
Was it too early to buy it for him? No it wasn't:
- he was consistent in his requests for the ipod, it was not a passing fad.
- he learnt the value of saving and the need for sacrficing impulse buys for a bigger purchase.
- he learnt that it takes months of hard work to earn a lot of money, and a few minutes of carelessness to lose it.
- he learnt that not everything that looks cool on the internet is appropriate for kids, and that people will hide dross in with good product in order to sell it.
- he learnt to shop around for the best price and really think about ALL the ramifications of his choices.
He may probably make many of these mistakes again on the the next large purchase - but some of them he won't repeat.
AT the rate he's going it will take him over a year to pay back the money he now owes me - this has actually got him thinking about his future and what he wants to do for a living. (I pointed out to him that both he and I were currently working solely to pay off debt. He doesn't like it, neither do I. He's now thinking about jobs he might like that pay better than average wages.
)
...beside which, I also get to use it when he's out!
I didn't have a cell phone until my first year of college (because they were unavailable anyway ^_~). I never had things like hundreds of dollars to spend on a regular basis. Even if they did exist when I was a kid, I know I would have never gotten one. >_<