BBaker2008_KeitaiKids

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(2.1) Introduction

This chapter explains to the reader the major risks that come with children using mobile phones. Through this explanation it should grow clear why the topic of this paper is important. However, the success of the industry’s marketing of the positive side of mobile phones is first discussed. Detailing the fact that in countries across the globe one of the main reasons mobile phones are purchased for children is for safety. Yet, it is clear that the level of safety that a handset may provide is not comparable to the horrible dangers that arise from child mobile phone use.

The negatives of child mobile phone use can be broken down into three categories: the mobile phone industry and its marketing tactics, the teenage years and personal development, and the amplification of social stress. With these categories as a guide many negatives pop out: youth are starting to value the mobile phone as a necessary part of life; a lack of regulations leads children to get caught up in fatal situations; children are loosing themselves to consumption as a form of expression; they are loosing their sense of responsibility and money through mobile phone use; youngsters are growing addicted to mobile phone use, as well as sleep deprived; the mobile phone acts as a gateway for loss of self-esteem; many children are the victims of bullying and unwanted sexual communications. Many of these negatives can be linked to text messaging and the mobile Internet platform, not voice contact; this is an important fact to understand throughout the paper.

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(2.2) The Positives and their Awareness

As stated previously, around the world mobile phone companies are marketing their products, to parents and children alike, as the ultimate in safety devices. All mobile phones allow instant communication between parent and child, and many are being released with GPS and alarm technologies, as well. With a simple press of a button on a PC or mobile phone, a parent can check where their child is at all times, or respond to an emergency warning. It appears that by the amount of children and teenagers who own mobile phones, this marketing is having an affect.

The vast majority of research on the relationships between mobile phones, parents, and children has been taking place in Great Britain. According to recent research by one of Britain’s leading research institutions, Ipsos MORI, parents are quite positive about their children owning mobile phones, even in light of the many possible dangers that come with ownership. Parents of children eight years and older claimed the main three reasons why they let their children have mobile phones as: being able to make sure children are safe at any time, being able to contact children at any time, and children being able to contact family at any time. They also claimed that these reasons held more weight than the possibility of heath risks and mugging. (“Parents Positive Towards…” 2006)

Children appear to be catching on to this perception of mobile phones as safety devices, as well. In the Australian report, “Young and Connected: Psychological Influences of Mobile Phone Use Amongst Australian Youth” (Walsh, White, and Young 2007), children list contact with friends and family, entertainment features, and the

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feeling of safety, as the three top reasons why they want mobile phones. In the “Mobile Youth Report” (2006), the results show that 80% of British mobile phone owning youth claim they feel safer when out of the house thanks to their mobile phone. In the United States, where mobile phone ownership is seen as a right of passage more than anywhere else in the world, statements from parents and children such as the following are quite common: "He's playing the safety and security card on me, saying, 'Wouldn't you feel safer if I had it?' " (Petrecca 2005).

In Japan, a 2007 study found that 16% of all mobile phones used by elementary, middle, and high school students are child oriented models, such as the Kodomobile and Junior Keitai mentioned above. In terms of elementary school students with mobile phones (1 in 4), about 60% owned child oriented models (Kamioka and Taniguchi 17 Aug. 2007). In a similar study by Kamioka and Taniguchi (21 Aug. 2007), they found some particular reasons why Japanese parents allow their children to have mobile phones are: they want the capability to always be in contact with their children, their children travel go to school and after school lessons, and because child oriented handsets were put on the market. The data shows that a large number of Japanese young children own safety feature-rich mobile phone handsets, and the main reason why they own them is the fact that their parents worry about their safety. It appears that Japan has been sold on the hype about mobile phones protecting the world’s youth just as much as the rest of the world.

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(2.3) The Negatives Outweigh the Positives

Parents and children around the world are quick to see the positives about mobile phone ownership, however when studied thoroughly, the negatives far outweigh the positives. ChildAlert, a leading organization for child safety and wellbeing, does a good job of organizing the concerns about child mobile phone ownership into three categories: the Mobile Phone Industry and Marketing Tactics, Personal Development in the Teenage Years, and Social Stress ("Children and the Mobile Phone!…” 2007).

(2.3.1) The Mobile Phone Industry and its Marketing Tactics

While this paper has already discussed the mobile phone industry and its marketing tactics in detail, a short summary would be prudent. ChildAlert, claims that mobile phones are a “…socially iconic ‘toy’ with virtually unlimited access” and the “…latest ‘cool thing’ after cigarettes” ("Children and the Mobile Phone!…” 2007). Looking at the statistics on youth mobile phone use above, these are not understatements. Children around the world literally “need” mobile phones in their life to get by. If not for the exotic functions that come with, for the sake of being “cool”, “fashionable”, and “fitting in”.

There are many examples of extreme cases in recent years that prove just how intensely the mobile phone has been ingrained in the minds of today’s youth by the industry. In March of 2008, an 18 year-old university student in India committed suicide because he could not afford to purchase his girlfriend the mobile phone that she had been nagging him to buy. The girlfriend broke up with him when he initially told her that he could not afford the phone. Some time later, she told him that they could get

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back together if he could now afford the phone. Due to the stress and shame of the situation, he ended his life ("Suicide Over Mobile: Ex-Lover Held" 2008). In this situation, one individual felt so strongly about mobile phones that she was willing to end a relationship over them; while another felt so strongly that he was willing to take his own life.

A 2007 report from the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan revealed that fanatics linked to al-Qqaida and the Taliban have been recruiting young boys to commit suicide attacks by convincing them that they can survive the attack. And if they do so, they will be rewarded with prizes, such as motorcycles and mobile phones ("Children 'Tricked' Into Afghan Suicide Blasts" 2007). Again, this example shows that the power and significance that today’s youth feel a mobile phone can offer is equal to one’s life. The marketing seems to have permeated deep in the mental construct of children around the world.

ChildAlert also stresses the lack of purchase and use regulations by the mobile phone industry ("Children and the Mobile Phone!…” 2007). This is something that almost every country in the world is having trouble with. Just about anywhere, a young individual can purchase a mobile phone on their own, and then have immediate access to a virtually infinite amount of inappropriate content, as well as contact with dangerous individuals. Unfortunately, it is taking severe examples for governments and companies to take charge.

In 2007, a 16 year-old Korean boy committed suicide after tallying up a 4,000 US dollar mobile phone bill by viewing pornographic content via the Internet on his

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phone. This news shocked the country, and the government is considering tactics to prevent such occurrences; such as limiting the number of minutes youth can use monthly, and strengthening legal restrictions that prevent youth from accessing inappropriate content. The parents are also suing the mobile operator for its failure to block access to the content as is required by law. The operator has 32% of Korea’s 40 million mobile customers, and makes 20% of its revenue from data charges (Burns 2008).

A rampant problem plaguing Japan is that of pedophiles gaining access to young girls on dating sites and social networks through the mobile Internet. One of the most discussed recent news stories is that of the murder a 16 year-old girl from Aomori prefecture. She had been upset that her boyfriend broke up with her, so she reached out to friends, new and old, on the country’s most popular mobile social networking site, Mobile Game Town. She met a 30 year-old man through the site and agreed to meet him at a hotel in a nearby city. Thanks to a fire in the hotel, her body was found and the man was arrested before he could get away with the crime (“…” 2007).

These sad examples show that without the proper regulations in place, children will continue to be children, and get themselves in more trouble than they can handle. Unfortunately, the private and personal nature of mobile phones, along with their portability, does not give much of a chance for adults to know what is going on and prevent such incidents.

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(2.3.2) The Teenage Years and Personal Development

“The mobile phone feeds the personal requirements of a teenager - they provide a sense of worth ensuring popularity with friends with whom communications can be continuous. The phone also feeds the desire for attention, acceptability and satisfies a teenager’s emotional drive” ("Children and the Mobile Phone!…” 2007). The problem with this is that the mobile phone tends to be a replacement for the normal real world channels that a teenager would use to develop personally. The experiences lived through a mobile phone do not equal real world experiences, and this can have an affect on a child’s social skills and perception of the world.

One concern is that due to the massive amount of marketing, plus children’s susceptibility to it, along with every youth’s desire to be “cool, they are starting to view consumption as a primary form of self-expression and a valid option through which they can develop their identity. And as a result, children are defining themselves by what they consume, not by who they truly are (Kersting 2004; Downie and Glazebrook 2007).

Data discovered by Roy Morgan Research (2006) and discussed in depth by Downie and Glazebrook (2007), shows that a “majority of children who own mobile phones exhibit signs of status and or aesthetic motivated consumption”. In the study, 53% of the Australian youths believed that the brand of mobile phone is important, and 62% believed that the way a mobile phone looks is important (Roy Morgan Research 2006; Downie and Glazebrook 2007). Supporting this data in other countries, 31% of all British youth (23% of males, 41% of females), ages 11 to 17, say that “style” is the most important feature of a mobile phone (Mobile Youth Report 2006). 2007 survey research

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by NPD Group shows that the top motivator for young Americans when purchasing a mobile phone was, “it’s a cool phone” (“What Motivates Mobile Phone Buyers?…” 2007).

While the youth of the world have always tried to express themselves through fashion, music, etc., the constant flow of new handsets and the desire to always have the coolest and most advanced one may not only be reflecting their materialistic values, but magnifying them as well. Children could be on their way to loosing or never finding themselves in the constant search for the newest way to express themselves, without actually looking within. On top of that, “Juliet Schor (2004), a professor of sociology at Boston College in the US and a leading researcher on children and consumerism, claims that children’s ‘involvement in consumer culture causes dysfunction in the forms of depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and psychosomatic complaints’” (Downie and Glazebrook 2007). On the scale that today’s youth have accepted mobile phones, the word “involvement” is not nearly strong enough.

Another concern is that children around the world are losing or not even acquiring a sense of the value of money due to mobile phone use. A simple search online in relation to the topic of children’s mobile phone bills will overwhelm the researcher with a virtual flood of news articles and message board posts on the topic. In the United States, the average student’s monthly bill ranges from 41 to 60 US dollars a month, and 57.5% of students have their bill completely paid for by their parents (Burns 2005). Roughly half of British parents pay for the mobile phone bills of their 11 to 17 year-olds; 76% of parents buy the handsets as well (Mobile Youth Report 2006). In

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Australia, 59% of parents pay their child’s complete monthly bill (Downie and Glazebrook 2007). And in Japan, 32% of parents pay for their kid’s bill in full; with the 55% of mobile phone bills reaching up to ¥5000 per month (roughly 50 US dollars) (Auckerman 2001; 2007).

Here we see that many children around the world do not have to bear the responsibility of managing and paying for their mobile phones. With this, the mobile phone and its uses have become something that children expect to have and children are not gaining the maturity and responsibility required to own such a device. They see the mobile phone as something that is always there for them, but they do not understand such items come with a financial burden. Many parents pay for the phones because they want their children to have the “safety device,” but this is backfiring for many parents.

Stories such as that of Sofia Rubenstein are popping up all over the Internet. She is a 17 year-old American girl who sent 6,807 text messages, at 15 cents a message, in May of 2007. The rampant messaging brought her parent’s family-plan to over 1,100 US dollars that month. While she had to work over the summer to pay off the bill, it was her parents who were initially hit with the blow (Webb Pressler 2007).

Because of incidents like this, many mobile operators have begun unlimited text messaging plans, and parents are buying them up to prevent any surprise bills. Yet, this only promotes the image to kids that they can use their phones without thought and without consequence. An AT&T commercial that aired to promote its new unlimited plan visualized the issue perfectly: “A young girl is confronted by her mother for her text-messaging charges, and the girl answers in ‘text,’ saying ‘o-m-g, i-n-b-d.’ Subtitles

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provide the translation: ‘Oh my gosh, it's no big deal’ (Webb Pressler 2007).

(2.3.3) The Amplifications of Social Stress

There are various types of social stress that occur as a side-effect of mobile phone use for youths; with the possibility of all of them occurring at the same time, heavily increasing the affects on children. The three most prominent stresses are: maintaining constant communications, the stress of wanting an equal flow of contact, and the stress of unwanted communications ("Children and the Mobile Phone!…” 2007).

Past generations of young people were no different from the youth of today. Young people have always sought to be social and stay in constant contact with friends. Before the mobile phone craze exploded across the planet, parents were nagging their teenage children to get off of the household phone for decades. However, the mobile phone has added a new twist to this cycle; there is no hanging up, no getting away from the phone. This has enabled the latest group of youngsters to remain in constant communications with their friends, and encounter a great deal of stress in doing so.

Because of the sense of immediacy that comes with messaging via mobile phone, many children feel they need to respond immediately; as well as always be near the phone so they can reply, even if they do not want to. This has lead many experts to explore whether the mobile phone youth are addicted to messaging. In fact, the risk of mobile phone messaging dependence has been verified with correlation to “Young’s Internet Addiction Diagnostic Criteria”, due to the many similarities between the Internet and mobile phone use (Kamibeppu, Kiyoko, and Sugiura 2005).

It appears that this stress to be in constant contact may first develop because