Is there a danger of children getting addicted to their mobile phones

asks Jayne b-t:

�

A. Prepaid mobile phones are hugely popular with children in the UK, and 29 million text messages are sent each day. A Mori survey last year found that a third of 16 to 20-year-olds prefer text messaging to any other written communication. Parents are usually happy about their children owning a mobile because of the safety aspects and the peace of mind they bring. But in Japan, where a quarter of children aged four to 15 own a mobile phone, sociologists have found that they are creating problems.

�

Q. What sort of problems
A. Well, kids in Japan have been using extremely sophisticated mobile phones for a lot longer than they have in this country. Now Japanese teens have become fanatical about being 'always available'. What they say to each other is less important than the actual act of staying in touch, according to sociologist Hisao Ishii, author of The Superficial Social Life of Japan's Mobile Phone Addicts. He claims that they get uneasy if they can't contact their friends several times a day for fear that they are becoming socially isolated. And it gets worse...

�

Q. How
A. Ishii says that this can lead to mobile phone addiction, where teens are unable to maintain a relationship without the help of their mobile, and that proper conversation will give way to superficial communication.

�

Q. How does it affect their lives now
A. Those who use mobile phones a lot read less books and, according to one Japanese survey, children without a mobile phone did better at school than those who owned one.

�

Q. How often do they use their phones
A. One in five children claimed to talk at least ten times a day, and almost half claimed to send at least 10 text messages a day.

�

Q. Is it the parents' fault
A. Well, 41.5% of those polled said that their parents 'forced' them to have a mobile phone. Yet, many parents feel their children spend too much time on the phone. Some parents also thought that a mobile made it harder to keep a check on who their children were talking to. Frighteningly, 26% of the Tokyo children surveyed claimed that they spoke regularly with people they had never met.

�

Do you think mobile phones are addictive Post your comment here

�

By Sheena Miller