17 per cent of parents make the smartphone purchase to prevent whining.
Cloud-based security firm Westcoastcloud reveals one in ten parents in the UK believe it's appropriate for children as young as four years old to own a mobile phone.
This comes hand in hand with news that one in ten children under the age of ten has an iPhone and one in 20 primary school children owns an iPad.
17 per cent of parents bought their children a phone after they gave in to their child's pestering, while 68 per cent did so because they wanted to keep tabs on their kids, according to the report.
The results also showed that almost one in ten primary school children own a social networking account, despite Facebook and MySpace requiring a subscription age of 13.
Bill Strain, director of Westcoastcloud, said: "It's great that youngsters are interested and engaged with the latest technology, but children owning their own phones as young as four does seem unnecessary.
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"Kids will always be able to gain access to their parents' phones and laptops but when primary school age children gain access to the internet on these devices, parents need to be aware. There's the potential that they could access unsuitable or potentially harmful content."
The survey also found that a third of the children who used their parents' devices did so for activities such as YouTube, emailing, or using Facebook or Twitter.
The survey was released to coincide with the release of WCC's iPad school internet security app Netintelligence.
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