Data from the Pew Internet and American Life Project show that around 75% of adolescents in the age group of 12-17 have a mobile phone. In 2004, less than 50% of the very same age group owned mobile phones.
Moreover, the age at which adolescents start using a mobile phone has been dropping over time.
According to a survey by Mediamark, in the year 2009, 20% children in the age group 6-11 had a cell phone. Further, in the age group 10-11, the percentage of children owning a mobile phone has increased by an astounding 80.5% during the last five years.
This brings to the fore a few tissues hat have been disturbing quite a few parents to some degree or the other. Questions like "At what age can a child be reasonably given a mobile for his/her use?", "Is it safe for their health?", "How does it affect their personality development?", "Does it expose them to other risks?" have been looming large in the minds of most parents.
Child development experts haven't recommended any ideal age for allowing a child to have his/her own cell phone. But, it does appear sensible that the decision to buy a mobile for a child should depend primarily on need.
Factors like how responsible the child is in taking care of the phone, how capable the child is of handling it, and how responsible a use the child would put the phone to are all important enough to be kept in mind. If the mobile phone is likely - given the child's behavioural pattern - to propel the child to develop contacts outside the home at the expense of intra-family communication and relations, perhaps it is wiser to defer buying a mobile phone for the child.
Patricia Greenfield, a children's digital media expert, told the New York Times, "You should wait as long as possible (to get your kid a cell phone), to maintain parent-child communication."
It is interesting to know that most of these children in the age group 6-11 use their cell phone to call their parents apart from contacting their friends. As these children grow more into their teens, the focus shifts, not so very surprisingly, to calling friends. (Hasn't that been the bugbear of the parents of an earlier generation in the case of fixed-line phones as well?!!)
How does the use of a cell phone starting early in childhood affect the physical and emotional development of children? That's a critical question and the answers can have a significant bearing on the future of our society.
A study of a large number of Danish children discovered a correlation between exposure to cell phone during foetal stage and childhood cell and adolescent behavioral problems.
According to the study, children who were using cell phones at age seven were half as likely to develop borderline behavior problems than those who were exposed to cell phone while in the womb but not after birth.
It does seem to suggest the effect of parental use of a mobile on the unborn child. But more elaborate studies are necessary. As regards the behavioral problems in children using (owning) a mobile at the age of seven may be the consequence of such use; but the behavioral problems may also be because the parents themselves were distracted by their own preoccupations weaning them away from the children. More elaborate studies seem to be needed in either case to draw definitive conclusions about the correlation suggested by the Danish study.
In any case, the issues of safety related to the ownership and use of cell phones by children and adolescents are not difficult to handle and good old experience comes in quite handy!
While it is true that parents cannot completely control their child's use of phone (who the child talks to, what he/she talks etc), keeping a discreet watch (overhearing too?!!) can help.
Many cellphone operators in other parts of the world - but not India as far as we know - offer a choice of filters and restrictions over the use of the mobile given to a child or adolescent.
Pre-paid connections and Incoming-only connections can also be helpful though an Incoming-only plan may defeat part of the reason why a child is given a mobile phone (to call the parents in an emergency) in the first place.
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