I got an Apple watch for my 11-year-old for precisely this reason - he can text, call, and play some games on it.
Subscription to cellular is $10/month.
And it let me set parental controls on it.
No way was I getting him a phone, it's already way too distracting with the other devices he has access to at home.
I also have an 11 year old with an Apple Watch and it has been such a good introduction to connectivity as well as social media (iMessage/texting...)
She has gained a lot of independance because we are able to track her with the watch, and she is now proactively communicating with it to let us know where she will be etc.
I'm not enthusiastic about the teen years with TikTok/Instagram,etc but at least she will have been onramped gradually and hopefully it's a natural progression.
It only needs to be paired to an iOS device for initial setup and configuration. A watch with cellular can operate independently of the iOS device after setup and configuration.
It's been a year or so, but some carriers refused to sell me a watch only plan, it had to be a new cell plan for a phone too. (And pairing with an existing phone meant it had that cell's number, not a watch only one.)
Subscription to cellular is $10/month.
And it let me set parental controls on it. No way was I getting him a phone, it's already way too distracting with the other devices he has access to at home.