Mobiles and your children

Whilst there’s no direct evidence to suggest that mobile phones pose any danger to children’s health, we can be certain that:

• mobile phones emit low levels of radiation
• children are three times more susceptible to radiation than adults

Since reports and studies into the effects of mobile phone radiation causing long term damage have, to date, been inconclusive, it’s safe to say it’s better to simply not take the risk where children’s health is concerned. If children use mobiles on a regular basis, they’ll be subjected to much more prolonged lifetime use from a much earlier age than adults, for whom mobiles are a relatively new phenomenon.

As a general rule, it’s advisable that children under the age of eight shouldn’t use mobiles at all because of the potential health risks, and those between the ages of eight and 16 should only use them in an emergency.

And it’s not just the association of radiation that you need to consider. From the running up of enormous bills to mobile bullying, from the ease of accessing inappropriate website content to paedophile grooming, there are all sorts of very real issues associated with children and mobiles.

Children have grown up with technology and know more about it than many adults, but we must protect them from inappropriate use. The mobile industry has categorised this into the ‘3Cs’:

Content

Websites containing illegal or harmful content, including gambling, pornography, racism, drugs, violence, eating disorders and many other materials potentially damaging to children.

Contact

Chat rooms and other sites where paedophiles ‘groom’ children are the most immediate area of concern, enabling people to make inappropriate contact with children in relative anonymity and away from the watchful eyes of parents. Location based services like GPRS provide the possibility to track down children and make dangerous contact with them.

Mobile bullying must also be considered.

Commercialism

Exploitation of children by marketing or advertising entices them to buy expensive goods or give out personal details, completely bypassing parental control. There’s also increasing peer pressure on children to have the latest handsets and the best in new mobile technology to keep up their status and image.

With the continuing advances in technology, bullying has been brought well and truly into the 21^st century, where the cowardly bully can pursue their victim without even having to come into physical contact with them, often resulting in the victims’ serious psychological damage.

‘Happy slapping’

This is where victims are subjected to violent physical abuse whilst the act is recorded on video phones and broadcast to other mobiles or online via 3G. There have recently been several convictions for this type of crime.

SMS bullying

Text message bullying is gaining increasing popularity and can have huge consequences for the victim. In pre-mobile days, the bullying could at least stop at the school gates; now, the victim can be pursued round the clock through their mobile.

Abusive phone calls

These can range from frequent silent calls to serious threats of violence. Calls can be traced but if the perpetrator is a pay as you go customer with no record of their identity, tracing can be difficult. Complain to the police and your network operator if your child receives abusive calls.

Theft

Statistically, theft of mobile phones is greater among young people than among adults, with children being regular victims. If your child’s phone is stolen, make sure it’s reported to the police straight away. Using a PIN number will prevent calls being made by the thief.

It’s hardly surprising that so many children now have their own mobile phone. With the potential dangers that lurk around every corner, we want our children to stay safe, be easily contactable and for them to be able to contact us. Giving them a mobile phone seems the most obvious way to do this. Here are a few tips on keeping your child safer with a mobile phone:

• they probably won’t thank you for it but don’t buy them a smart phone with all the latest functionality – get them a phone that has the basic functions of making and receiving calls and text messages so they can keep in touch
• a smart phone that allows internet access poses the problem of downloading inappropriate content or huge amounts of costly ringtones and their favourite latest chart hits – the simplest way to prevent this is to not allow them the capabilities in the first place
• get them a pay as you go phone so you can keep tabs on their spending and avoid the problems of excessively high bills
• register pay as you go handsets in the name of the child
• protect the phone with a PIN (Personal Identification Number)
• agree rules about online access from their mobiles
• speak to the network operator about filtering, blocking and restricting access to certain types of websites or services from your child’s phone (but don’t rely on these alone, you should still try to restrict your child’s access)
• make sure they know not to reply to text messages from unknown sources
• encourage them to keep talk time to a minimum to protect them from the potential dangers of radiation
• educate them on not giving out their mobile number in the same way you’d educate them not to go off with strangers
• discourage them from sending pictures of their friends via MMS or email – once it leaves their phone, they have no control of where it ends up
• make sure all the family are on the same network so you can call each other cheaply
• protect them from thieves by making sure they don’t have their phone on display. If they’re on their own, have the ringer off so it doesn’t alert passers by to its presence