#868: Growing concern over safety of cellphones for children (France)
From Sylvie in France:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/07/business/mobile08.php
Growing concern over safety of cellphones for children
By Doreen Carvajal Published: March 7, 2008
PARIS: The MO1 beginner mobile phone is not as cuddly
as a teddy bear, but manufacturers of the curvy,
crimson and blue cellphone for 6-year-olds promise a
similarly warm and fuzzy relationship. They boast
about socialization, emotional health and the comforts
of “peace of mind.”
But the shiny child-size phones are stirring some
parental and government unease, particularly at a time
when the mobile telephone industry is reaching deeper
into saturated markets to tap customers with chubby
hands capable of cradling both dolls and phones.
Already, the demographic of young mobile customers –
tweens and teens – is driving subscriber growth in the
United States, according to International Data Corp.,
a technology research firm in Massachusetts, which
projects that 31 million new young users will join the
market from 2005 to 2010.
The year 2006 marked the turning point when the
industry started focusing not just on teenagers and
adults but also on tweens – those aged 8 to 12 – and
even children as young as five. And with that
attention, bright new “kiddy” telephones began
appearing on the market that can speed dial grandma
and grandpa with a click of a button.
The MO1 – developed by Imaginarium, a toy company, and
Telefónica in Spain – prompted some parent groups in
Europe to demand a government ban on marketing to
children.
Here in France, the health minister recently issued a
warning against excessive mobile phone use by young
children.
The objections are driven in part by a lack of
knowledge about the long-term health effects of mobile
phone use. But they also appear to reflect an
instinctive worry about whether parents should be
giving young children cellphones at all.
Jóvenes Verdes, an environmental advocacy group for
young people in Spain, says that “the mobile telephone
industry is acting like the tobacco industry by
designing products that addict the very young.”
While there is no specific evidence that mobile
telephones pose a health threat to young users,
researchers worry that there is still only scant
scientific information about the long-term impact of
the radio-frequency electromagnetic fields emitted by
mobile telephones on the developing brains and tissues
of children.
The French health minister, Roselyne Bachelot, has
taken such concerns public, issuing an alert in
January urging parents to limit use, and reduce
children’s telephone calls to no more than six
minutes. Her announcement followed a similar warning
by the Health and Radio Frequencies Foundation, a
research group backed by the French government that
was created two years ago to study the impact of radio
frequency fields on humans.
“I believe in the principle of precaution,” Bachelot
said during an interview. “If there is a risk, then
children with developing nervous systems would be
affected. I’ve alerted parents about the use of mobile
telephones because it’s absurd for young children to
have them.”
The French foundation is moving now to organize a
broad international research projects to study the
potential risks for children.
More studies are developing in other countries. The
Mobile Telecommunication and Health Research Program
in Britain, which is financed by the state and local
telecommunications industry, is in the early stage of
organizing a children’s study.
Another project, called Cefalo, is under way in
Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland to explore
whether mobile telephone use increases the risk of
brain tumors for children.
In January, the National Research Council in the
United States also delivered a report – commissioned
by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration – that
reviewed existing scientific studies around the world
and urged further research on the impact of mobile
phone use on children and pregnant women.
“This clearly is a population that is going to grow up
with a great deal of larger exposure than anybody else
because the kids use the phones all the time,” said
Frank Barnes, a professor of engineering at the
University of Colorado in Boulder, who led the study.
“And you’ve got growing bodies and brains, so if there
is going to be an impact, that’s likely to be a more
sensitive population.”
Every year, the average age of novice mobile phone
users is dropping, reaching the age of 10 last year,
according to Scott Ellison, an analyst at
International Data Corp. He forecasts that the
9-and-under market will increase to nine million users
in the United States and $1.6 billion in revenue by
2010.
Telephone use is also getting more precocious in
Europe, according to a Eurobarometer survey of almost
1,000 children in 29 countries, most of whom had
telephones after age 9.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/07/business/mobile08.php
As it turns out, she does not indulge in a lot of
talking on the phone, but she does send and receive up
to 7,000 text messages a month. Pozgar – who has been
coaching football for 17 years – has noticed lately
that more of his players, aged 8 to 9, have mobile
telephones.
“I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing,” he
said. “But how does a kid that old seem responsible
enough with not losing or breaking it. My gosh, they
can barely remember to tie their shoes.”