Cell Phones, Kids - a Bad Connection?
Posted on: Sunday, 22 January 2006, 03:03 CST
By Leslie Brody< The Record<
HACKENSACK, N.J. - It's the new rite of passage.
Not too long ago, the monumental event in a 10-year-old's life was getting braces. Now, everyone who is anyone has to have a cell phone.
Depending on who's talking, phones for such young children are either a blessing in emergencies, the latest back-to-school accessory, noise pollution or a health risk. Or, as one concerned social worker put it, "an electronic umbilical cord" to mom and dad.
Now, 14 percent of children ages 10 and 11 nationwide have their own cell phones, according to GfK NOP, a market research firm.
Don't hang up yet; the firm predicts one out of three children that age will have cell phones within the next year or two. That's the current rate for 12- to 14-year-olds.
Wireless companies are racing to cash in on this lucrative young market and win brand loyalty at a tender age. To boost the phones' allure, companies are jazzing them up with all kinds of "cool" entertainment - games, graphics and ring tones. "These phones are great for 10- and 11-year-olds when they're stuck in the back of mom's car when she's at the dry cleaners," said Ben Rogers, the vice president of GfK NOP.
Some children's advocates, however, say all this hoopla should be put on hold pending further study of the phones' possible perils.
Commercial Alert, a nonprofit consumer group, recently asked Congress to investigate the safety and privacy issues surrounding the marketing of cell phones to children. The group warned that children might be enticed to run up huge bills; advertisers might bombard children directly via cell phones or phone-related Web sites; and predators might use phones to lure children into danger.
Targeting young children for cell-phone sales "is one of the worst ideas to appear in the American economy in a long time," Commercial Alert said in its July letter to Congress, backed by 30 prominent child advocates, psychologists and educators. "Does anyone really believe that kids today lack sufficient distractions from schoolwork, that there are insufficient disruptions in the home, and that child predators and advertisers lack sufficient means of access to kids?"
Leila Leon, of Glen Rock, N.J., gave one to her daughter Ciena last Christmas when she was 9 and started walking three blocks home from school. Ciena is not allowed to text-message or use the Internet through the phone. She calls friends mostly on weekends when minutes are free.
"I felt she was mature enough to handle it," says Ms. Leon. "It's an emergency tool."
The targets of some phone companies' pitches might be barely old enough to write down a phone number. Firefly Mobile, for example, aims for 6-year-olds and up; their phone has a big button with a symbol for a woman that speed-dials mom, and another button for dad.
TicTalk, to be available this month, is also intended for age 6 and up and comes loaded with educational games by LeapFrog. Parents can program in all the numbers the child is allowed to dial or receive calls from. They also can limit the times that calls are permitted.
"Everything on the device is parent-controlled," says Mark Weinzierl, the president of Enfora, the company behind the TicTalk. "It makes the child feel safer because they have that wireless tether back to their parents ... It's like a cell phone with training wheels."
Many companies are shooting for the older "tween" market of 8 to 12. Mattel has a new Barbie phone with prepaid minutes so parents can control how long their child talks.
Some critics of phones for children call the trend a bow to peer pressure and their desire for a status symbol. Gary Direnfeld, a social worker in Ontario, who writes about child development, cautions that "electronic umbilical cords" can provide a false sense of security.
"No amount of technology can compensate for judgment," he notes.
"Kids may still place themselves at risk and communication devices provide a means of assistance only after the child may have fallen prey to harm."
Source: Augusta Chronicle, The
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