Right of Passage or spoiled

My son had a group of friends from the neighborhood come over and play for awhile. Like all kids they were in and out all day. I am usually not bothered by a bunch of kids running through the house, heck I am even known to jump in their games of nerf war or football every now and then. When something gets broken or someone is mean I usually send everyone home.
Today a couple of the boys had broken some star wars toys of my sons so I sent them all out side.If you have ever sat down and put those stupid legos together you know it takes an architectual degree and some engineering work to make it look like the model on the box. My son was imbarrased that he was crying over legos and hid in his room till everyone left. After a few minutes he immerged with a forgiving spirit and followed everyone down to the next parents house.
As I was about to let the cat outside I noticed all the boys gathered around a storm drain. A bit worried that one may fall in or get trapped I walk over to warn them of the dangers of playing near them and all of the kids start freaking out that one of the boys had dropped his phone down the drain. A bit confused as to why any of these kids even needed a phone I take the lid off the drain and lower one of the kids down to retrieve it none the less. As he hands me the phone and I lift him back up I couldn't help but notice that the phone this kid dropped was his Iphone!
I mean I understand that if parents are divorced and they want to make sure little Tommy is able to talk to mom or dad at anytime needed they get the kid a phone but this kid's parents aren't divorced and he is nine years old. I just have a real problem with kids having cell phones.
Maybe I am a bit old school and back in the day when cell phones and beepers were getting hot my parents still wouldn't let me have one. I was sixteen with a car and my parents still wouldn't let me have one. I had to call in every hour on the hour and let them know where I was and I had to use a pay phone. I am pretty sure kids now days don't even know what a pay phone is, I'm not even sure there are any still around.
So to me a cell phone is a right of passage kind of thing. When you can pay for it then you can have one. Why does everyone need to be on a phone all the time anyways?
So I asked the kid why he has an iphone and he let me know it was so his parents could reach him at any time. Anytime...he lives three houses away and where is this kid going that mom and dad or some adult won't be? Maybe I am over reacting and kids with cell phones is just the fad but buying your kid a four hundred dollar phone? I thought we were in a recession?
So later when my son came in from playing we had a discussion about cell phones and the responsibility of having them, the cost etc. He could really care less about having one right now, but I did inform him when he was older we would be happy to get him a prepaid cell phone.