- Children below ten should not possess a cellphone.
- Do children under ten years of age who own a cellphone increase their experience regarding contemporary issues, or does the device expose them to greater vulnerabilities?
- Different parties have varying opinions regarding the importance of child under the age of ten possessing a cellphone.
- Parents find it deciding whether a child aged below ten should own a phone. Currently, there are varying opinions regarding the downsides and benefits of possessing a phone. However, the need to protect these children due to their vulnerability to cyberbullying, negative impact on their health, as well as the addictive nature of cellphones that may result in children foregoing their studies prove the need to provide children with cellphones at a later stage.
- The early use of mobile phones is connected to long-term health issues (Chiu, 2015).
- Increased risk of cancer.
- Decreased male fertility among children who us
- Behavioral problems.
- Emotional issues, such as inattentively and hyperactivity.
- Vulnerability to cyberbullying (Dempsey et al., 2018).
- Cellphones make children easier targets for criminals due to easier traceability.
- Cellphones may result in early exposure to adult content
- A small weakness in a child may become a cyberbullying target among peers and may result in low self-esteem.
- Early use of cellphones is addictive (Dempsey et al., 2018).
- Affects a child’s social skills
- Results in depreciating school performance due to negligence and low concentration.
- There is no doubt that children possessing cellphones is a challenging issue to solve given the contemporary socialization needs. Nonetheless, considering the dangers inherent to early exposure of mobile phones, such as cancer, declining school performance, and poor social skills, parents need to preserve that privilege to a later age when the child can become more responsible in their cellphone use.
References
Chiu, C., Chang, Y., Chen, C., Ko, M., & Li, C. (2015). Mobile phone use and health symptoms in children. Journal of Formosan Medical Association, 114(7), 598-604. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfma.2014.07.002
Dempsey, S., Lyons, S., & McCoy, S. (2018). Later is better: Mobile phone ownership and child academic development, evidence from a longitudinal study. Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 28(8), 798-815. https://doi.org/10.1080/10438599.2018.1559786