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Children’s
cell phones not
needed
Elysse
James
The
rudeness of cell phone users all over
campus cause many people to scorn the
necessity of this wireless technology.
For students in dorms or apartments who do not want to pay for a house phone
when they are rarely home anyway, the cell phone is the perfect convenience.
For parents with teens, the phone provides a link to their child — a
way to contact them at all times. But for children under 13, a cell phone is
unnecessary.
Children under 13 are still growing and developing. The effects of long-term
cell phone use have yet to be seen and still many parents are ignoring these
risks to give their children the recognition that comes with having a cell
phone to be just like Barbie.
Of all companies to develop phones for these younguns, the Walt Disney Internet
Group has taken the lead. Disney and Sprint are joining forces to create phones
aimed at preteens.
Kids these days play with cell phones before they learn to walk.
There is the plastic cell phone with ringtones and the candy-containing cell
phone, to start children off early in pretending to use the phones their parents
constantly use.
Children are no strangers to the use of cell phones, but isn’t giving
cell phones to preteens a bit extreme?
These kids are either at school or with their parents. They are under constant
supervision. What need do they have for a cell phone? It’s not as though
they are out on their own.
Good parents know where they are at all times, and they can always use their
friend’s parents’ phones to call Mom or Dad.
While the phones designed for those under 13 include a few cool features like
a global positioning service to help parents track their children, the phones
aren’t designed to serve their intended purpose.
These phones will only allow children to dial numbers parents have programmed
into the phone.
The problem with this feature is that if a child is hurt or in danger, he or
she may not be able to get a hold of any of the people on his or her contact
list.
Heck, even dialing random numbers may give them a better chance of getting
help then simply waiting around for someone to return his or her calls.
We have seen how cell phones disrupt college classrooms to the point that professors
routinely include warnings in their syllabi about having a phone go off in
class.
Elementary and middle school teachers already have their hands full with their
students’ general behavior. Adding a cell phone to the mix is only going
to make the general disturbance level rise.
Cell phones for young children, especially phones specifically marketed to
that age group, are just a bad idea. Besides, interrupting a game of tag to
answer a cell phone is a real nuicance.
Elysse James is a fourth year journalism major. |
