It's official: our society has spun out of control.
What is it this time? Kids are getting cellphones at the age of 6, 7 or 8!! Are you kidding me?
I stumbled across this article in the weekly Thursday styles of the New York Times. Sometimes the "E Section" has some pretty interesting stuff, but I've never really found an ethical issue. It just so happens I found two in this particular issue.
The article is about how kids are starting to get cellphones as young as the age of 6. Before I go in to the article, take a minute to think how old you were (assuming most of the adult community has cellphones) when you got your first mobile phone. I was 16. My parents said I was old enough to have one now that I would be driving. However, I was responsible for paying the bill and keeping track of my minutes, making sure I didn't go over.
Anyway, the article started out flabbergasting me. Hannah Stacks, a third grader, started bugging her parents for a cellphone at age 6. First of all, who was she going to call? She never stopped bugging her parents until she finally got a mobile phone at the age of 8, as a reward for not being mean to her little sister for 30 days. OK, wait a minute, when I was 8 and my little sister was 6, A) I don't think I could go 30 days without picking on her, even if there was a reward involved, and B) IF I would have accomplished such a task, I would probably have been given $3 and a half hour later bedtime for a Friday night. Whoopie. I can't even fathom being given a cellphone when I was that young!
According to The Times, cellphones are quickly emerging as the must-have techno-toy among elementary-school society. One of the most popular kinds of phones is called the Firefly. The Firefly features only five keys, including ones with icons for speed-dialing a parent, and allows users to call a maximum of 22 numbers. Great (cough, cough.)
Some 6.6 million of the 20 million American children in the age range of 8 to 12 had cellphones by the end of 2006, according to an analysis by the Yankee Group, a technology consulting firm in Boston, which thinks there will be 10.5 million preteen cellphone users by 2010. Is this really even ethical, or necessary for that matter? Who are these kids going to call, other than their parents? I remember how exciting it was to have the house phone ring and it be one of my friends for me. What was wrong with that? Nothing! The Yankee Group estimates the number of 8-year-olds with cellphones more than doubled to 506,000 over the past four years, while the number of 9-year-olds jumped to 1.25 million from 501,000. These numbers are astonishing to me. I remember when I was 8 or 9 I was excited if my Barbie dolls got a fake phone. I can also remember that maybe one or two of my friends was even allowed their own phone (hooked up to their house's main line) in their room. It was just unheard of.
The article pointed out that children want cellphones for obvious reasons: to look cool and be mature. In my mind, it is unethical for parents to give in to that. There are other reasons kids at the age of 8 or 9 can look cool. Bring money for hot lunch instead of in a lunch box is what I did to get the "cool, mature look."
The flip side to my argument is also stated in the article. Some say that the phones are an electronic security blanket (parents can monitor incoming and outgoing calls) in a world of two-career households, and split custody arrangements, Amber alerts, and terror levels. Excuse me, but all of this was happening when I was this age, we always arranged where I'd be after school and who I'd be with before starting the day. And as for Amber alerts, kids can get abducted whether they have a cellphone or not.
The Times also noted schools are seeing a change in cellphone use. Teachers are sending more and more students to the Principal's office for finding them using a cellphone instead of paying attention in class. One parent even noted in the article that her son would call her during lunch and math class. Isn't that something that should concern the parent?
The only thing I find appealing about the phones is that they feature a global-positioning satellite device so that parents can locate the phone, and presumably the child, from another phone or a Web site. Ok, I'll give in. This aspect of the cellphone is a good idea, but these kids are still too young.
My whole reasoning is that this articles falls under an ethical issue is that kids need to stay kids as long as possible. Kids have their whole lives to be grown up and mature. The preteen years need to be valued more than collapsing in to giving kids cellphones.
**Other brands of cellphones made for kids:
Article by: LISA W. FODERARO
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