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Cell phones for
children: a blessing or a curse?
½
of
British youngsters aged five to nine own a mobile telephone,
and a brand for tots is close.
Some are
not pleased. In a world where everyone seems to be busy
texting and talking, more oldsters believe that their small
ones should join the fun. Regardless of dire alerts about
the long term harm that mobile telephone use may wreak on
small children's psychological and physical health, we have
just passed the tipping point : over half of Brit kids aged
between five and nine own a mobile telephone.
Now, in
this fast expanding market, a major network is getting ready
to adopt a range of kiddie-phones designed for kids as young
as four, with says that its handsets are much more safe and
smarter.
But can
there be any sense in texting toddlers? Health worries about
the impact of mobile telephone use on adults' brains may
have mostly subsided but govt guiding principles still warn
that youngsters's vulnerable gray matter should be
protected. Professor Lawrie Challis, an emeritus professor
of physics who has led the Regime's mobile-phone safety
research, claims that oldsters shouldn't give kids
telephones before secondary faculty. After that, they should
inspire them to text instead of to make calls, as texting
exposes their brains to lower levels of electric radiation.
we don't have any idea if they are different in reaction to
this type of radio frequency, asserts Challis, but there are
reasons why they may be kids react differently to ionising
radiation, radioactivity and gamma rays.
If you
are exposed to too much daylight as a kid, you're much
rather more likely to get skin carcinoma than if you are
exposed as an adult. An annoying study by analysts at rebro
School Surgery in Sweden last year pointed to the fact that
kids might be 5 times more probable to get brain cancer if
they use mobile telephones. On top of this comes new concern
about the long term consequences of mobile telephone use on
the mental well-being of kids. This month Dr Michael
Carr-Gregg, a leading Australian trick cyclist, called
fogeys who permit babies to use mobile telephones insane.
Carr-Gregg, a Varsity of Melbourne professor of paediatrics,
is frightened about the power of mobile telephones to
distract and overexcite.
According to a new survey conducted by Carr-Gregg, forty p.c
of youngsters with mobile telephones are sleepdeprived on
college nights, as peer pressure has made it ordinary for
youngsters of six and seven to remain up till the early
hours texting mates. His proof, disclosed in a chain of
Australian educational conventions, means that millions of
youngsters are permitted mobile telephones in their
bedrooms, making a generation of overtired living dead.
Other new research has linked sleep deprivation in kids with
hyperactivity symptoms and hormone imbalances that increase
the danger of obesity and diabetes. Carr-Gregg announces
that no kid should be permitted a mobile telephone till the
age of twelve.
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