Research has discovered girls are much more likely than boys to own a mobile phone in Australia. Picture: Supplied

But Australia’s love affair with the smartphone starts early for both genders, with one in 10 children owning their first smartphone before grade five.

Roy Morgan Research recently uncovered the widespread phone ownership and gender gap in two surveys of Australians aged between six and 19 years.

Boys are more picky about the phone they want. Picture: Supplied.Source:Supplied

The company found girls began to dominate phone ownership by the age of nine, when an extra six per cent of girls owned phones than boys.

The gap widened to eight per cent for boys aged up to 11, and continued until boys almost caught up between the years of 16 and 17.

The surveys, which quizzed more than 4600 people, identified several reasons behind the disparity, with girls less picky about the phone they received, and more eager to stay in touch with family and friends.

Roy Morgan Research chief executive Michele Levine said parental attitudes also played a big part, with mothers taking a “fairer” stance on phones for both genders, and fathers seeking to protect their daughters.

“Dads with teenage daughters are around 12 per cent more likely than dads with teenage sons to agree they want family members to carry a mobile phone for security reasons,” she said.

“It’s perhaps a dynamic that many families already understand full well — when they want their first mobile phone, girls should go to dad and boys should go to mum.”

The surveys also found most Australian children adopted phones by the time they were 13 years old, with 64 per cent of boys and 69 per cent of girls claiming their own phone.

Just two per cent of boys and one per cent of girls were without a mobile phone by the time they reached adulthood.