children and mobile phones

9 out of 10 ten year - olds have mobile phones, and even those who are younger have mobile phones (a mobile survey from Telenor). They use it to listen to call with, listen to music, to take photos and to search the web. Do the children really need a mobile phone?

Mobile phone radiation is one of the factors why kids shouldn’t have any mobile phones. A Swedish study says that children are FIVE times more exposed to cellular readioation than adults. The study recommends children to use the sms instead of calling with the phone. Only use the phone to call with in emergencies.

- Mobile phones and bullying:

15% of the children between the age of 13 to 16, has expirienced bullying via mobile phones or via the net.

Here are some facts from ung.no about sms-bullying.

In this clip you can see an example of how a mobile phone can be used for bullying.

Do the children know what's right or wrong when using the mobile phone? There have been some problems at schools with children using the camera on the back of the mobile phone, to film other students in odd situations, and then to show it off to others. Bullying professor Erling Roland says in an interview with "Puls" on NRK; - Since it is quite common with a camera and even recording oppurtunities for video on mobile, I think the scope of the problem is going ti increase, 8 - and 9 year olds have great opportunities to take the picture and spread it,but little chance to understand what this means.

So it can end up with pictures and/or videos uploaded to the net, without knowing the consequence of what could happen to the person on tape. This could also give children new ways of bullying others. Why should children have mobile phones? When should they get one? In this clip we can hear CBS News education expert Amy James talks about kids and mobile phones.

I think the main reason why children should have a mobile phone is so they could be reached, at any time. When your kid hasn't come home from practise, it would be nice just to pick up the phone and ask where he/she is, and why he/she hasn't come home. You can even track your kid down. mBuddy is a service wich provides you the opportunity to find the other person via the mobile phones signal. Both owners of the phones have to agree that this service should take place.

Other pros for mobile phones for children is that they could get to learn, in early age, what kind of possibilities there is in ICT nowadays. They get to learn how to use the mobile phones, how to behave in medias like the internet and written and unwritten rules that can come along this device.

-Parental control.

But there is a catch. It is important that the children have good role-models and someone who can guide them to a propper way to act. Superiors should, in cooperation with the kid, make rules of what is allowed, how to use the phone and thoughts about how they both want to use the phone.