Text messaging is the | | occasional chat as adults do, but | | attempt to ban or control |
latest way for young | | to fulfil an essential need of | | mobiles for the sake of their |
people to feed their urge to | | adolescence. | | health is bound to be as [id:3401] |
communicate. This is what | | As teenagers strive for | | as banning the under-16s from |
Kate Figeswrote about it | | greater independence, they have | | |
in the year 2000… | | to replace [id:3399] provided by | |
| | their parents, with closer contact | |
Mobile phone users in the UK | | with their friends. So they stick | |
are sending more than half a | | together: girls walk arm in arm, | |
billion text messages a month, | | boys backslap, punch and play- | |
according to the Mobile Data | | fight, and when they cannot | |
Association. My guess is that | | connect physically, they talk or | |
an increasing number of them | | text message on the phone. | |
are teenagers "talking" to | | Mobiles also offer security, a | |
each other. | | valuable link to home in case of | |
Text messages are [id:3397], so | | emergency, as well as the | |
children can use them secretly | | freedom to escape from it. | |
in class, the modern equivalent | | However, mobile phones | |
of passing notes under the desk. | | may carry a health risk. In July, | |
There are one million mobile | | David Blunkett, the Secretary of | |
owners under 15. Nine and ten- | | State for Education and | |
year-olds are the fastest | | Employment, wrote to all | | any other adult pursuit. |
growing market. This presents | | schools in England and Wales, | | Mobile phones are exciting |
problems for parents, who foot | | discouraging pupils under [id:3400] | | because they are adult toys, but |
the bill, and teachers who do | | from using mobile phones | | they are also central to an ado- |
not welcome phones in their | | 16 "because they are more | | lescent's sense of well-being. |
lessons. But mobiles are | | likely to be vulnerable to any | | Any talk of [id:3402] seems quite |
important to teenagers and, with | | unrecognised health risks from | | unimportant or remote when the |
a skill you can only be surprised | | mobile phone use than are | | benefits seem so obvious. |
at, they use one thumb to tap | | adults because their nervous | | And if the phone companies |
out their own telephone | | systems are still developing. | | were to invest some of their |
language, such as CU. I believe | | Also, because of their smaller | | profits, made from exploiting |
it is important to understand | | heads, thinner skulls and a more | | this vital teenage need to talk, |
why: they need to talk. | | sensitive tissue structure, | | into finding ways of making |
For a teenager, a mobile is an | | children may absorb more | | mobiles safer, now thatwould |
essential lifeline [id:3398] friends; | | energy from a mobile phone | | be something! |
they are also cool status | | than do adults." | |
symbols that make them feel | | All adolescents know, of | | Kate Figes is author of Life |
grown up. Teenagers need to | | course, that adults have a habit | | After Birth, published by |
communicate with their friends | | of denying them access to the | | Penguin. |
all the time, not for an exchange | | pleasures and the privileges of | |
of essential information or the | | grown-up life. Therefore, this | | 'The Times' |