The kids and mobiles is something like this, according to
discussions with friends and relatives, teachers.
- families who have only 14-20 year old kids do not
understand why anyone below 15 should have a phone.
(it is sometimes tough being the youngest, although it
varies)
- families with many kids, 10-20 understand that the
10-14 year old also need a phone, on some occasions,
when being late for dinner, visiting a neighbor kid,
dropped off at a something, and most importantly to be
part of the "family network", sending SMS messages.
Similar thoughts extendable to 7-10 year old.
The use of the phone as game toy is more important
for the younger kids.
Schools and teachers are working out rules for the kids.
The most serious problems are "losing the phone", forgetting
it in the "bushes" on the way home or stolen in school.
(no handsets in jackets,etc in the corridor, similar to
wallets, bus tickets,etc)
The few who has got an old antenna-phone also break the
antenna quite soon, this covers all school ages and some
10 years more, some on the way to and from school,
playing football or just fooling around,others during the
weekends.
To me there are many parallelles to things like
- having the home keys on a string around the neck,
safety pin in the pocket,etc.. (many kids forget their
back pack,books both in school and at home)
- the bus card in a transparent pocket of the back pack.
(very few "school buses", kids walk, bicycle to school or
use regular public transportation in civilized regions
with local income tax??)
- having some money with them, weekly allowances,etc
- in terms of gadgets, calculators, game boys, nintendos, etc, some frogs in the pockets.
That is, one aspect is to "learn for life", another is
that every 2 year young kid wants to play with the
phone. (remeber my story on this 2.5 year old who
proudly came in with a medium size stone in the pocket,
and every now and then took it out to check if there were
any (SMS) messages, children see, children do)
I would assume any present or former parent has gone through
issues on kids and wired phones, game boys, calculators,
as well as "where have you been, where are you going,
haven't I told you,etc"
Not to forget "call me when you get home", now changed to
send a SMS message on the bus home and I'll call you back.
All the stuff fat middle managers playing golf while their
third wife is shopping for a new color matched cat for the
new sofa have little understanding of..
Grandkids might help if one is walking around enjoying
streaming xxx-rated movies??
Ilmarinen |
