Nine out of ten 12-year-olds own a mobile phone and cite playground peer pressure or the fear of being unlucky in love among the reasons why, a new survey has revealed.

The survey of more than 1,250 young phone-owners aged 11 to 17 by YouGov found more than half of ten-year-olds had phones, and by the age of 12, 91 per cent owned a mobile.

The poll said 70 per cent of young people felt their phone had made their life better, and suggested phones could help teenagers' love-lives.

The report, from The Carphone Warehouse and The London School of Economics (LSE), found young people on average sent or received 6.6 texts a day and made or received 3.5 calls a day.

Girls said they would feel unwanted if their phone did not ring once a day.

Peter Excell, Professor of Applied Electromagnetics and Associate Dean for Research in the School of Informatics at the University of Bradford, said: "I'm not surprised at the report. Mobile phones open people to global communication 24/7. But there are risks - porn, spam, bullying and mugging. We have to talk about these things. I would be in favour of a law that allowed parents to control their children's phones."

The report went on to say that despite 11 per cent of youngsters having been mugged for their phone, four out of five said they felt safer when they carried a mobile phone when out and about, although 56 per cent of young people thought owning a mobile made them a target for muggers.

Surprisingly, parents were more relaxed with just 28 per cent concerned their son or daughter would be threatened by phone thieves.

Dr Carsten Sorensen, a senior lecture in Information Systems at the LSE, said mobile phones were vital to teenage life.

He said: "The study shows the extremely important role of the mobile phone in everyday life. Teenagers are obsessed with what peer groups think. They have to have one otherwise they are outsiders.

"A mobile phone is a toy that lets young people practise communication. Mobile phones teach you communication skills that are important in work, but we do not know if other skills, such as concentration, could be lost.

e-mail: ali.davies@bradford.newsquest.co.uk

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Ali Baig, 30, of Heaton Park Drive, Bradford: "It is good that they have got mobiles, so parents can keep tabs on them. But parents have to keep control of things like pay-as-you-go. Also some ringtones, like the Crazy Frog, can end up taking too much money off kids."

Michelle Bastow, 28, of Idle, who also has a daughter, three: "I have a 12-and-a-half-year-old step-daughter and she has one. She uses it on the way home from school or in the case of emergency. God forbid if anything should happen to her and she didn't have one."

Myron Krywyszyn, 38, of Anne Street, Bradford, who has two children, a three-year-old and a two-day-old baby: "Generally, no. Maybe when they are 14 and 15 and they start going out - then there is a safety aspect. But there is too much peer pressure these days."

Sue Anderson, 58, of Odsal: "All my grandchildren have got them, they had them from the age of ten onwards. They use them in an emergency. You never know when they are going to get caught out."