you are 5 and you have a cell phone? whom do you call?

“you are 5 and you have a mobile phone”, is a very common statement used these days by many adults and even teenagers. But there is nothing to be surprised about. These days, young kids own a mobile phone and they know how to use it including operating very complicated functions like operating a GPS or sending emails through phones. But is it meant for them?

Children own phones not because they have to make real use of it like make important phone calls or text messages containing important information. It is merely to show off to their mates that they own a mobile phone and use it as they like. However, it is very unsafe as children are exposed to a lot of information which they aren’t supposed to be exposed to at a tender age. For example, children are prone to giving their cell numbers to many people who in turn send them text and multimedia messages having sexual content which affects the mental health of children. Moreover, the personal and private nature of mobile phones makes parental supervision almost impossible.

Moreover, children are addicted to mobile phones. It has become an integral part of their life. The EMC world has published a report which says that children are addicted to cell phones more than toys and they can’t live without it and parents often cannot keep a check on what do the children do with mobile phones.

It is not only harmful to the child’s mental health but also to their brain. A research proves that children at the age of 10 or below are prone to ear tumors by 4 times compared to adults. The radiations from cell phones can also affect their DNA. To prevent the misuse of cell phones, a special mobile phone was devised in UK but was withdrawn from the market because it encouraged children at that age to buy a mobile phone.



Cell phones are necessary to an extent when parents want to contact their children or for use in emergency but children aren’t mature enough to decide what is right and what is wrong for them. Parents should be careful while giving cell phones to children and should take it back when the need is over. Also children should be made to understand what they should do and what not in order to maintain their privacy and safety.

How to make a brain slushie...or at least grab the attention of 4chan

So during my skimming of Australian News a couple of weeks ago, the image of a young girl's face full of tears and the out of control phenomenon of internet 'trolling' caught my eye. This 11 year old posted a video on Youtube ranting about 'popping a glock' into all her haters mouths making a 'brain slushie' pointing out that they were all just jealous of her looks and whatnot. This attracted the attention of 4chan 'trollers' who harrassed and cyber-bullied the tween. All the drama provided much material for the Aussie media to trigger a debate on the controlling of internet content and its access.

My first reaction: "Where are her parents?" and "Wow, she looks older than 11". I pretty much missed the point of the article and thought more about the wonderful choice of words the tween used. In retrospect it makes me wonder; how net savy parents are nowadays, restricting kids on the net as a good idea (?) and the risks we all face when putting our opinion out there on the wild wild web whether it be through Youtube or blogging. Obviously this girl's parents aren't too up date with the goings on of the virtual world (and their own daughter's). Her mother quote "does not go on the computer" thus could hardly judge what is appropriate, so scratch the first two off my train of thoughts. And this girl had no shame telling her haters to get 'AIDS...(from her)..none existent penis'. Risk? What risk?

Hey, she's only 11, so her maturity level probably isn't that high so we look to the parents to ensure such incidents don't happen. Sure, you can't protect your kids from every danger on the internet but you can at least implement measures and educate yourself on the use of the internet. Oh and get to know your kids I suppose. I have seen the generational barrier that causes many parents to avoid the internet, computers and technology in general like it's the plague but I believe it is a necessity for parents to get to know the basic ins and outs of the internet because cyber-bullying is real. As for the drawbacks of sharing public opinion? I'm sure there's a privacy option for most sites (correct me if I'm wrong). If ya wanna go public, remember that everyone has an opinion and trollers will troll out of the share joy of getting a reaction. Just don't let your 11 year old daughter share theirs publicly or you'll have to step in.

Sometimes, people just don't learn.