Mobile Warning For Little Kids
Sunday Mail
September 26, 2004
Thousands of Queensland children, some as
young as five, now own mobile phones. Figures from wireless media company iTouch show 50,000 Australian
children aged 5-9 own a mobile phone, with numbers expected to rise
to 80,000 by 2005 and 90,000 by 2006.
The figures are backed by British market research company
MobileYouth, which says phone companies will soon start creating
mobiles specifically for under-10s.
Australian teenagers lead the world in mobile phone use, with
45 per cent of 13-to-15-year-olds owning one. Their average
bill is almost $50 a month.
MobileYouth says security concerns are causing parents to buy
phones for Year 1s so they can stay in touch.
For kids, peer pressure to look cool is driving their desire to
own a phone when they are barely out of preschool.
Parents are being warned to limit their children's use of mobiles
with claims children's thinner skulls would allow radiowaves to
penetrate more easily.
And MobileYouth analysts warn that children who own a phone are
at risk of being assaulted or bullied via SMS.
British mobile phone radiation expert Professor Colin Blakemore
urged parents to be cautious. "If there are any effects, they would
be more exaggerated in young children," Prof Blakemore said.
MobileYouth analyst Wyndham Lewis said mobiles represented a rite
of passage for children.
"The under-10s market is the fastest growing market in terms of
new owners," Mr Lewis said.
"It is generally the first device they own and have complete
control of.
"The type of phone they own, the number of calls and messages
they receive, how they decorate their phone and the ringtone they
choose all provide clear communication about the group they belong
to and their position in the social hierarchy."
Australian Early Childhood Association president Judy Radich said
giving phones to five-year-olds was "mad".
"We don't know the risks so why expose kids," she said.
"And do parents really have to give kids everything they want?"
Experts say the new
trend could be placing children at risk of disease, assault and
bullying.