James Kendrick points me to an interesting article on CNET UK about the average age of children when they get a mobile phone. The article states that a recent study shows that the average age of a child is expected to drop to five years old this year - while five years old does surprise me, I thought I would weigh in with my opinion, and it is generally a positive one. I would like to say first, however, that I am not going to address the issue of phone radiation, as we could argue back and forth about that little issue all day.
If I remember correctly, I got my first phone at the age of eleven or twelve, which was quite young back then (I was the first kid I knew with a phone). Even ignoring my involvement in the industry, I have no problem with parents giving a phone to a child - with a few caveats. For a start, I do think that five is too young; sometime in the latter stages of Primary school (or elementary school, depending on where you are, between grades 5-7) would be more appropriate.
To be honest, I like the idea of companies making child friendly phones like the Firefly and LG’s Migo. I do not agree with giving a fully-fledged handset to a child, but I think that these very restricted handsets are a safe way to introduce a child to the responsibilities of owning a phone - including teaching them the associated costs of calling, and looking after the phone itself. These child-focused handsets also provide a form of peace of mind to parents, with children at an age where they start going out with friends and generally getting around a bit more on their own, as many have integrated GPS tracking capabilities and emergency buttons.
One thing I do dread though, which is something that the CNET article also touches on, is the way an SMS messaging capable handset could destroy a young person’s aptitude in spelling and grammar. I absolutely despise receiving a message coded in ‘TXT TLK,’ and with handsets including easy to use predictive text input methods these days, I really see no excuse for the laziness. This is one issue I don’t really know how to address, though it is one that the restricted kid-phones don’t have (as they cannot send text messages). Short of trying to instill a respect for good grammar and spelling in your children (which is probably a pipe dream), I don’t know how we can solve this one.
Like everything, there is good and bad points to giving a phone to a child. Overall, I’m on the positive side of the fence. I do not have children though, so my stance could completely turn around when I do.
[...] Brad Kellett agrees with C|Net and worries that the SMS capabilities of cell phones might ruin kids ability to spell. I’m not buying that argument. As a kid, I used to write notes to friends that used a lot of short hand and picture messages. I can write reasonably well today. The ability to know when to use quick and dirty writing versus formal writing is just as valuable of a skill as knowing when to talk slang and when to talk formally. Kids are smart and if they are taught the difference they are not going to have problems switching from one to the other. [...]
I definitely agree! I absolutely ABHOR text talk. Yes, I use some in IMing and such, but only in moderation. I can count the number of shorthand with one hand, and it shouldn’t be more than two hands at all. I especially dislike having to read text messages from my relatives in the Philippines, because having shorthand on top of a language I don’t read well is especially frustrating. There, text talk/shorthand arose more from necessity since they wanted to say as much with the fewest amount of messages, which of course is understandable, but I see more and more that native Filipinos can’t even spell or type correctly on the computer, which of course is unexcusable considering there’s a full QWERTY keyboard. And even here in the U.S., that’s also an issue, although certainly not to that extent. Many of my friends have started to prefer predictive text (thankfully!), but one particular friend for instance is stubborn about using his RAZR’s iTAP (which considering it’s Motorola is understandable), and thus uses text talk, which in turn results in text talk in his writing–even essays! It’s absolutely horrible!
[...] The Be a Good Dad blog has made a very thoughtful response to my Cellphones and Children post, and in fact disagrees with me on one of the points I made. [...]
Information on LG Mingo Chaperone Verizon Wireless GPS for Kid Products at http://www.giftsonic.com/gps/lgmigo-gps-child-locator.htm
Elemantary school is too young. 7th grade is acceptable, 6th grade and even 5 and 4th grade is way too young. where will they be going with a cell phone? oh right. bragging.Believe me. i was once in 6th grade.
i opposed the cellphone to kids .
my brother he is of 13 he want cell . he cried
i gave some idea about the effect of this cellphone ’s & i show ed him some thing like this site u better u too show this site to u r
kids which Cell Phone Radiation and the Increase in Brain Cancer
people appear to have an almost pathological emotional attachment to their cell phones and there is a fascinating suggestion that cell radiation pulses might actually be addictive to the human brain
for more information visit this site
Cellphoneradiation
Thanks, mahesh, but that link you posted doesn’t seem to be working.