TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Should Kids Have Cell Phones in School?

Re: Should Kids Have Cell Phones in School?

hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
8 Jan 2007 07:57:48 -0800

Steven J. Sobol wrote:

> We just got a phone for our teenage girl. It's great because it offers
> safety and convenience.

The convenience part I can understand, especially with the demise of
common pay phones.

Just out of curiosity for discussion purposes, how does it offer
"safety"?

That is an argument I hear very often as justification for giving a
good child a phone (and indeed why I originally got one myself).

For myself, I got one primarily in the case my car breaks down. If
your daughter is driving, then that is a reason, especially nowadays
with few pay phones out there. (However, in ten years I have yet to
use the cellphone for that purpose.)

If the child isn't yet driving, I wonder about the safety issue. In
other words, when I was a kid that was never an issue. My parents'
biggest worry about me outside the home was traffic safety, being hit
by a car carelessly crossing a major street. I think that was the
leading cause of accidents for kids in those days. When I was older
and going further via the subway, they were nervous about muggings on
the subway (with good justification). I did not run around late at
night.

Anyway, I wonder if today's pre-driving kids are exposed to so many
dangers out there? I can't help but wonder if the biggest danger is
unsupervised younger kids looking for something to do and peer group
pressure, such as pushing a hesitant 14 y/o to go to the woods or an
empty house to smoke or drink. In my day parents were home and are
whereabouts, esp pre-16, were pretty closely monitored and structured
without cell phones. We wouldn't allowed to go that far from home to
begin with.

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