Children and Cell Phones: A New Struggle in a New Century
How common is cell phone use for children?
- Estimates say 33% of children have a cell phone
- Other estimates say over 20 million children have cell phones in the US
- Over 6 million of those are preteens
When should my child get a cell phone? How old is old enough?
- When surveyed, the majority of parents felt that children should get a cell phone between the ages of 10-13 (About.com survey)
What type of education should I give my child in order to use the cell phone safely?
- Discuss rules about length of talking time and with whom your child may communicate
- Let children know from what times are they are allowed to use the phone and when they should turn it off
- Let children know what type of pictures are appropriate to send
- Remind them that once a picture has been sent out, it could be posted anywhere in the world
- Remind children to never give out their cell phone number to strangers
- Let children know you will be periodically reviewing their cell phone records and texts for unknown numbers
- Make sure kids know how easily information spreads between cell phones and to the internet
- Talk to children about the dangers of sending or receiving explicit photographs including legal charges for pornography
- Discuss what your family’s plan will be if your child receives a hurtful or embarrassing text message/phone call or if someone calls your child too often
- Set up a routine for caring for the phone-charging times, designate a storage place to prevent losing it
What are the benefits of having children carry a cell phone?
- Parents can keep close tabs on children
- Children with busy schedules can contact parents to pick them up from extracurricular activities
- Instant access to parents if something goes wrong
- 9-1-1 access
What dangers should I be aware of if my child has a cell phone?
- Safety
- Cyberbullying
- Adult predators
- Tell your child to never send a picture of themselves or a text with their name or address to other people, especially strangers
- Remind them when they send a text or photo their phone number is captured on the phone of the recipient
- Addiction
- High tech devices are the “new addictions” for our children
- There are ongoing studies to see if there is the possibly of a true psychological and/or physical addiction with cell phone use
- Sleep deprivation
- New Swedish study showed lack of sleep, increased use of stimulants and increased stress/fatigue by children that texted frequently (more than 15 times per day)
- Risk of brain tumor or damage
- There is no absolute/conclusive evidence yet that cell phones increase the risk of brain tumor; however they do have low levels of radiation and further research needs to be done to be sure they are safe for the growing brain-especially when used frequently
- Cost
- Consider a pre-paid plan – when the minutes are gone that’s it
- Monitor minute usage closely to prevent large bills
What is cyberbullying? Sexting?
- Cyberbullying – means sending mean, embarrassing, harmful messages/phone calls or photographs by cell phones (or computer)
- More than 43% of teens have experienced cyberbullying (Natl Crime Prevention Council study, Mar 2008)
- Studies say only 10% of children who received these types of messages reported it to their parents
- Sexting – Sending explicit messages or photographs to others by cell phone
Are there any websites that give more guidance for parents about cell phone usage?
http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/talk/when/when_cell.html
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/
http://vsearch.nlm.nih.gov/vivisimo/cgi-bin/query-meta?query=cell+phone&v%3Aproject=nlm-main-website