• 11 AUG 14

    Hi-tech fears for young students

    LINDA SMITH, Mercury, August 09, 2014 12:00AM

    TASMANIAN children are spending so much time playing with smartphones and tablet computers that they are turning up to school with serious eye problems, an early childhood educator says. Kindergarten teacher Judi Rhodes has worked in Tasmanian schools for more than 30 years and said an increasing number of school-aged children were showing up to class without basic life skills and with health problems related to technology overuse. Studies have shown that too much screen time is detrimental to the mental and physical wellbeing of young children and Mrs Rhodes said this was obvious in classrooms.
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    • 01 APR 14

    A very sad story: A teenager with ovarian cancer and her need to always be connected.

    The implication of the below story is all to obvious. Where did Sancia carry her phone, which she cannot bear to be separated from? Perhaps in her jeans pocket only inches from her ovaries?

    I have made comment to this story, perhaps others might also.

    Don

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    Courageous Sancia keeps on inspiring

    JENNIFER CRAWLEY
    Mercury
    April 01, 2014 12:00AM

    A BEAUTIFUL, brave, young girl this week heads to Melbourne for life-saving surgery.

    Sancia Fenton captured the hearts of Tasmania and the nation when she shared her story of ovarian cancer six weeks ago. She decided to go public to let others know the disease affects young girls, not just older women. Since her diagnosis on Christmas Eve, the Glenorchy schoolgirl has turned 14 and is about to embark on what she hopes is the final chapter in her cancer story – surgery. Two weeks after her story broke, the normally stoic teenager found herself very emotional and hid under the blankets crying. “ I still have little moments when I cry myself to sleep – I’ve got to accept the burden,’’ she said. After extensive chemotherapy, the mass around her ovary has shrunk from football size to baseball size and now to softball size – small enough for surgeons to remove at the Royal Children’s Hospital. She has a huge folder of homework to take with her, and plans to do some shopping with mum Joanne in the two-week recuperation period. And like other girls her age, she insists she will not be parted from her mobile phone, even trying to think of a way to sneak it into surgery.
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    • 12 MAR 14

    Cell Phone Addiction: Parents Glued To Smartphones Have ‘More Negative’ Interactions With Their Kids

    By Philip Ross
    on March 10 2014 7:24 PM

    For once, it’s parents and not youngsters who are being told to get their noses out of their smartphones. The reason? Thumbing through one’s phone incessantly could damage the parent-child bond.

    A new study published in the journal Pediatrics found that adults absorbed in their mobile devices were more likely to harshly scold their children’s behavior.

    Researchers from Boston Medical Center observed parents interacting with their children during meals in fast-food restaurants. They noted that one-third of the adults used their phones continuously during the meals, and 73 percent of them checked their devices at least once.

    When a parent who was glued to the phone was interrupted by a child, the parent was apt to react negatively, according to the study. One mother even kicked her child under the table after the child attempted to get her attention while she tapped away at her smartphone. Another mother ignored her child as he tried to lift her head from looking down at a tablet. Researchers believed the kids may have been acting out as a way to test limits or gain the parent’s attention.
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    • 29 OCT 13

    Docs Urge Limits on Kids’ Texts, Tweets

    From Joel M. Moskowitz, Ph.D.

    Lindsey Tanner, Associated Press, Oct 28, 2013

    Doctors 2 parents: Limit kids’ tweeting, texting & keep smartphones, laptops out of bedrooms. [goodluckwiththat].

    The recommendations are bound to prompt eye-rolling and LOLs from many teens but an influential pediatricians group says parents need to know that unrestricted media use can have serious consequences.

    It’s been linked with violence, cyberbullying, school woes, obesity, lack of sleep and a host of other problems. It’s not a major cause of these troubles, but “many parents are clueless” about the profound impact media exposure can have on their children, said Dr. Victor Strasburger, lead author of the new American Academy of Pediatrics policy

    “This is the 21st century and they need to get with it,” said Strasburger, a University of New Mexico adolescent medicine specialist.

    The policy is aimed at all kids, including those who use smartphones, computers and other Internet-connected devices. It expands the academy’s longstanding recommendations on banning televisions from children’s and teens’ bedrooms and limiting entertainment screen time to no more than two hours daily.

    Under the new policy, those two hours include using the Internet for entertainment, including Facebook, Twitter, TV and movies; online homework is an exception.

    The policy statement cites a 2010 report that found U.S. children aged 8 to 18 spend an average of more than seven hours daily using some kind of entertainment media. Many kids now watch TV online and many send text messages from their bedrooms after “lights out,” including sexually explicit images by cellphone or Internet, yet few parents set rules about media use, the policy says.

    “I guarantee you that if you have a 14-year-old boy and he has an Internet connection in his bedroom, he is looking at pornography,” Strasburger said.

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    • 28 OCT 13

    West Australian school bans phones at breaks

    Prestigious girls’ school Penrhos College has banned students from using mobile phones during their lunch and recess breaks because of concerns students are losing the art of conversation.

    Principal Meg Melville said, even though girls were sitting in groups during breaks, teachers had become aware students were texting their friends instead of talking to each other.

    “We decided we wanted to really encourage them during their break times at school to have conversations with one another, face-to-face,” she said.

    Mrs Melville said technology was embedded in the curriculum and mobile phones had become an important part of that.

    But it was just as important for students to develop conversation skills such as understanding the nuances conveyed by people’s reactions and body language.

    “You can gauge how a conversation is going by looking at the way people are responding – you can’t do that in texting,” she said.

    “It’s just about being present in the moment. They don’t have to be taking photos of themselves or pictures of what they’ve had for lunch at the canteen.”

    Mrs Melville said many adults also did not realise it was “incredibly rude” to look at their phone when with other people.

    She said students could still immerse themselves in social media outside school hours.

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    • 10 AUG 13

    Toddlers Obsessed with iPads: Could It Hurt Their Development?

    Liana Vilanova can’t even sit up yet, but her father is already cheering his 2-month-old’s digital prowess, praising her for interacting with an iPad app. There are dozens of proud parents sharing their infants’ touch screen skills in videos posted on YouTube, ooh-ing and ahh-ing over their kids as they interacted with various apps. Babies are transfixed by iPads, so when the device shuts off or is taken away, YouTube videos show them going into full-fledged tantrum, screaming and crying for the device. Beth Brooks put an iPad in front of her 10-day-old baby, Alex, to see how he would react. “I guess I just didn’t think it was going to hurt, so why not give it a try,” she said. “And he seemed to like it.”
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    • 25 JUL 13

    A Rising Addiction Among Youths: Smartphones

    Wall Street Journal, Jul 23, 2013
    SEOUL–Lee Yun-soo has some regrets that she replaced her faded old clamshell phone with a smartphone six months ago. The smartphone-penetration rate among children and teenagers in South Korea tripled last year, and the government says roughly one in five students is addicted to the devices. The WSJ’s Alastair Gale talks with Jake Lee about the problem. The South Korean high-school student enjoys tweeting funny photos, messaging friends and playing online games. But she said her smartphone is increasingly disrupting her life at school and home. “I hate doing it but I can’t help it,” she said as she fiddled with the palm-size gadget. Ms. Lee is among the roughly 1 in 5 students in South Korea who the government said is addicted to smartphone use. This addiction is defined as spending more than seven hours a day using the phone and experiencing symptoms such as anxiety, insomnia and depression when cut off from the device.
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    • 14 JUN 13

    You really are addicted to your cellphone

    In her 2011 book Disconnect, National Book Award finalist, former senior White House health advisor and internationally regarded epidemiologist Devra Davis revealed that the cellphone industry is knowingly exposing us to dangerous levels of electromagnetic radiation. No small problem when you consider that of the roughly 7 billion people on this planet, about 6 billion of us now use mobile phones.

    In a recent analysis for the Huffington Post, Davis examined the cellphone industry’s long-term strategy, devised in the early ’90s, to deal with studies showing cellphone radiation damages DNA: “war-game the science.” Noted in a 1994 Motorola memo, this strategy, wrote Davis, “remains alive and well” today, the latest example occurring just last month. When the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) published newly detailed documentation for its yearlong 2011 expert review–which declared cellphone radiation a “possible human carcinogen” (same as lead and DDT)–the multi-trillion-dollar cellular industry responded by citing a new dubious report out of Taiwan.

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    • 21 MAR 10

    #1231: UK rehab clinic for technology addicts founded

    Sent in by Iris Atzmon: The Telegraph (UK) Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/children_shealth/7467200/Rehab-clinic-for- children-internet-and-technology-addicts-founded.html Rehab clinic for children internet and technology addicts founded Britain’s first internet rehab clinic has been founded amid fears children as young as 12 are addicted to the web, computer games and mobile phones. By Andrew Hough 18 Mar 2010 School children on computers:

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    • 09 JUN 09

    #1068: Spanish paper on cell phone addition now available online

    A new paper has been added to the www.emfacts.com web site. Titled “Addiction to cell phones: are there neurophysiological mechanisms involved?” ,the paper by Afonso Balmori and Maria Paz de la Puente, looks at cell phone use as an addiction problem, especially for children and young people. Originally published in the Spanish magazine Proyecto, Vol.

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    • 24 MAR 09

    #1039: Early research indicated addictive nature of microwave exposure

    Following is a 2001 New York Times interview with Eleanor Adair who played a central role in the establishment of the IEEE C95.1 RF/MW standard.Besides being a fundamentalist believer in the safety of microwaves Adair conducted research on behalf of the U.S. Air Force to prove that microwaves were safe – conveniently supporting Air Force

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    • 24 MAR 09

    #1038: HEALTH FEARS FOR MOBILE ‘ADDICTS’

    From the CHEEMF list: London Daily Express, England. 23 March 2009 HEALTH FEARS FOR MOBILE ‘ADDICTS’ http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/90589/Health-fears-for-mobile-addicts- By Mark Reynolds MILLIONS of youngsters are spending up to six hours a day on their mobile phones, according to new research published yesterday. And the figures have prompted fears that the nation is sitting on a health

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    • 14 JUN 08

    #902: Children, 12 and 13, treated for addiction to mobile phones

    From Yasmin Skelt, Mast Sanity (UK): To see this story with its related links on the guardian.co.uk site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/13/spain.mobilephones Children, 12 and 13, treated for addiction to mobile phones · They spent six hours a day on them, says psychiatrist · Spanish cases may be tip of iceberg, expert warns * Graham Keeley

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    • 06 SEP 07

    #796: More on the “striking” Bipolar Illness increase in the US

    While going through my email messages I find that Andrew Goldsworthy also raises the mobile phone issue with the apparent increase in bipolar disease in the US. Note the statement by Dr. Mark Olfson in the below article “I have been studying trends in mental health services for some time, and this finding really stands

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    • 06 SEP 07

    #795: Surge in youth bipolar disorder

    Here could be a worthwhile avenue of research on mobile phone use by young people. Could mobile phone use be a factor in bipolar disorder and/or should it be considered in treatment? Perhaps the apparent “surge” may be just due to over-diagnosing or better reporting as mark Olfson suggests below but the advice of the

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    • 15 APR 07

    #701: Part III: New Spanish paper on cell phone addiction

    Patricia Garcia continues to work on translating the Spanish paper and here is the third installment. Don In this brief review we will analyze the confirmed effects that these radiations have on neurotransmitters and post-synaptic receptors that could help us understand the possibly addictive effect similar to that produced by conventional drugs. Henry Lai, the

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    • 14 APR 07

    #700: The HESE Project on cell phone addiction

    For more on this important topic see the excellent HESE Project (UK) website: http://www.hese-project.org/hese-uk/en/issues/emr.php?id=phoneaddiction From the site: Mobile phone addiction? As you will see below from the news around the world, early recognition of repetitive strain disorders from too much texting has been replaced with real concerns about addiction. This has three aspects to it

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    • 13 APR 07

    #699: Part II: New Spanish paper on cell phone addiction

    Here is a further English translation from the Spanish paper. Very thought provoking information, to say the least. Don SIMILITUDES WITH THE CONVENTIONAL ADDICTIVE PROCESS Although the accepted international classifications that are habitually used in clinical psychology consider addictions and those disorders of the control of impulses as independent entities, they have many similitudes between

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    • 12 APR 07

    #698: New Spanish paper on cell phone addiction

    Last week Alfonso Balmori sent me a new Spanish paper on cell phone addiction. Trying the usual Internet free translation services proved to be absolutely hopeless but thanks to an old high school friend who lives in Seville, Spain a translation is underway. Below is the first installment. I can email the Spanish paper if

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    • 06 APR 07

    #694: Clarification to post #692

    Please note that the notice sent to me on post #692 is not an accurate representation of what was actually said on the program and I have since amended it on the web site. The following is what actually was said by Cindy Sage. Please delete #692. From a program aired on “Your Own Health

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