My son's teacher says he needs his own phone for 6th grade and I'm not ready

This feels early to me. He's 11. The teacher says all the kids have phones for group projects and stuff but I feel like 6th grade is too young to give him a smartphone unsupervised. I'm worried about the rabbit holes, the social media comparisons, the whole thing honestly. My wife thinks I'm being overprotective. What age did you guys let your kids have their own phones and how did you handle it? Did you use parent controls? I want to make the right call here but I'm genuinely worried about the psychological stuff I read about.