Should Children be Allowed to Have Cellphones?
Introduction
Think of cellphones, they have made communication easy, but should we buy them for our kids? In the contemporary world, many kids are walking around with cell phones. The reason for possession is convenience, safety, bonding through text, affordability, and responsibility. For this reason, some parents opt to buy their kids at a tender age, while others decide not to. Although phones have many advantages in some settings, they might not be essential to use with children in their teen ages. Primarily, cellphones and tablets on children have been helpful in gaming and studying. However, there has been a shift in the scope as the same phones distract kids, link them to behave, and unhealthy internet content. Lately, there has been a lot of debate on whether cellphones are suitable for kids or not, with supporters and opposition giving their reasons for and against, respectively. Based on the negative effects of giving a kid cellphone, it is essential to hold off the practice, especially when the children are at their tween ages.
Cell phones can be a distraction to kids. The conscience in children is easily moved by minimal events or things that happen within their environments. There are cases of increased cases of accidents associated with children. As stated earlier, there is a lot of debate on the appropriate age for kids to have phones. According to Iannelli, parents need to hold off giving their children phones at their tween years (Hess; www.cnbc.com/2019/01/18/). Generally, phones are known to be distractors among children. They cause an enormous distraction for kids crossing the streets on foot, resulting in accidents and injuries. Additionally, phones are known to distract school work, making students fail in class. A variety of schools are opting to ban phones in schools as they have been a major cause of distraction for students in school. This is following various research that revealed that students without phones performed better than those without phones. In order to minimize distractions, decrease accidents and injuries and increase academic performance among tween kids, it is essential to ban the use of cell phones.
Children with cell phones can be linked to behavior problems. The cellphone is not selective of age; everyone can access information of all types. It has been reported that children get into trouble by sending, posting, or even sometimes receiving inappropriate photos (Divan et al. 525; Iannelli www.verywellfamily.com/kids-and-cell-phones). This content is known to affect children's well-being; additionally, kids and tweens sometimes make prank calls, or their friends at school use these phones to make inappropriate calls. Commonly, exposure to phones at early ages is associated with ruined behavior; out of curiosity, they even extend their parents' trouble.
The internet has a lot more bad than good, especially for a child's young mind. Access to the internet is not restricted to the viewer's age, so long as an individual has the gadget that can access it. This platform makes all content available regardless of the viewer who is searching. Also, many digital advertisements popping on the internet attract the attention of young minds, affecting them significantly. Various scholars have debated against the possession of phones, especially smartphones. Heather Wilhelm describes it clearly that kids should not have a smartphone, nor should they neither have internet in their pockets (Wilhelm; www.nationalreview.com/2019/12/parents-your-kid-should-not-have-a-smartphone). The reason against access to explicit, violent, and degrading social content in the palm of their hands at all times. More point of concern is on the girls; Wilhelm presents a girl, eleven years old, and exposed to sexual predators via Instagram. Conversely, parents claim to have control over their children's phones, but they are clever and much far ahead of their parents when it comes to technology. The issue of phones with children is therefore out of hand and tough to address; therefore, the only sure way is to ensure that kids at tween ages do not possess a phone. Based on Iannelli, phones have negative effects on children, the fact that it gives them an opportunity communicate with the outside world, without supervision exposes the kids to risks. The worse of all is when the kids encounter sex offenders over social media getting groomed, negatively impacting tweens' minds with sexual content. With all the above evidence, there is enough reason to oppose anyone who targets buying cell phones for their kids.
Conclusion
In general, it is always tough to determine whether the kid is ready for a cell phone or not. The reason for concern is to ensure that the kid can manage the phone and evade all the adverse effects associated with it. Parents need to be sure before giving out a cellphone to kids, they can handle the responsibility and that key limits are put in place. If the parent is not sure of these aspects, it is important to hold off giving the phone. Definitely, it would not be a good thing if the parent becomes the blame for their kids, accidents, failure in schools, and ruined behavior.
Works Cited
Divan, Hozefa A., et al. "Cell phone use and behavioural problems in young children." J Epidemiol Community Health 66.6 (2012): 524-529.
Hess, A. (2019). Research continually shows how distracting cell phones are—so some schools want to ban them, www.cnbc.com/2019/01/18/research-shows-that-cell-phones-distract-students--so-france-banned-them-in-school--.html
Vincent Iannelli, MD. “Is Your Child Ready to Have a Cell Phone of Their Own?” Verywell Family, 14 Dec. 2020, www.verywellfamily.com/kids-and-cell-phones-2633996#:~:text=While%20security%2C%20safety%2C%20and%20convenience,isn't%20really%20a%20positive).
Wilhelm, Heather. “Your Kid Should Not Have a Smartphone.” National Review, National Review, 18 Dec. 2019, www.nationalreview.com/2019/12/parents-your-kid-should-not-have-a-smartphone/.
