One Third of UK Kids Under 10 Own a Mobile Phone

hypnosec writes "Nearly everyone is aware of the influence of technology, specifically that of the new-generation telephonic devices on our society. But, when one in every 3 under-ten kids start having their own mobile phones, only then we come to realize how deep rooted the influence really is — yes, that's what a new report claims. According to the latest findings by the cloud security outfit Westcoastcloud, near about 33 percent of all UK's under-ten kids are currently in possession of a mobile phone."

Comments

Somebody tell the schools

[Eunuchswear]

If only my kids idiot school would stop confiscating the damn things they might be useful.

Re:Somebody tell the schools

[bemymonkey]

If only you'd talk to someone in charge at the school about this policy... possibly with some of the other parents in the same situation...?

Re:Somebody tell the schools

[Anonymous Coward]

Useful for what? Why does a child need their own telephone?

Re:Somebody tell the schools

[stephanruby]

Pay the premium. Get your kid a Disney phone. Disable all its functions, but the one that calls you (and other emergency numbers), or the one that allows you to track him down through gps. Then, it's very unlikely that your kid will be playing games in class, or texting in class, for him to get it confiscated in the first place.

Re:Somebody tell the schools

[Anonymous Coward]

In my school days yo-yos were banned, then magnifying glasses ( after one too many summer Sun-focusing experiments ) and finally Game Boys. Fair enough.

School is a place for education, not entertainment. Can't the kids wait until they are home to text their friends, whom they last saw one hour previously anyhow?

Re:Somebody tell the schools

[Anonymous Coward]

I suppose that is one of those idiot schools that wants the attention of its pupils and would rather lessons are not interrupted by the continual "text update" or "facebook status change" ring tone...

My wife's schools takes phones off students and keeps them in the secretary's office - she fetches the children should a parent ring up with something that's important.

Re:Somebody tell the schools

[martin-boundary]

So we can charge them for trinkets directly on their phone bills, since they don't have their own credit cards.

Re:Somebody tell the schools

[Hazel Bergeron]

Many years ago I was one of the few carrying a PDA to every class - a Psion Series 3a.

I had it confiscated once: for using the internal speaker to stand to the British national anthem when my Scottish Latin teacher went on another of his hilarious anti-English tirades. He deserved it. I deserved it.

But as long as I only used it for schoolwork while in the classroom, everyone was happy.

Do kids at your school only use their 'phones for schoolwork while in the classroom?

Re:Somebody tell the schools

[MacTO]

Those policies exist for a number of reasons, and cover a variety of electronic devices:

1) Schools don't want to be held accountable for lost, stolen, or broken devices. And yes, parents blame the school when that happens.

2) Teachers don't want to deal with distracted children. Incidentally, this was true 50 years ago when kids weren't allowed to bring toys into class.

3) These contraptions are a source of bullying in a multitude of ways, ranging from theft to provoking and photographing/recording fights.

Just because you don't understand why policies exist doesn't mean that the school is an "idiot",

Re:Somebody tell the schools

[Joce640k]

Yep. The child doesn't need it. The parent does - so they can hover over them 24/7...

Re:Somebody tell the schools

[Anonymous Coward]

Not useful in a large town where there's a 200 meter walk and adults in the area, but useful in a rural area where 9 and 10 year olds can be abandoned to walk home by themselves over long distances with few passing adults to assist should they get into trouble? So what you're saying is that mobile phones are being substituted for parental responsibilty?

Re:Somebody tell the schools

[SpooForBrains]

My children's school has a hand-it-in-at-reception-on-arrival policy. They hand it in when they arrive, they retrieve it when they leave. This seems entirely reasonable to me, since many of the year 6 pupils walk to and from school by themselves, and thus might legitimately need to carry a phone.

Re:Somebody tell the schools

[TheRaven64]

In rural areas, at least where I grew up in the UK, it was quite common for children to get a school bus to and from a school in the city, or to car-share and get a lift with another parent. Sometimes, there are problems with this. For example, my school bus left over half an hour after the end of school, from about 10 minutes walk away from the school. If I missed it, but didn't realise, I wouldn't get back to the school until about an hour after school finished, at which point there may not be any teachers around. There was a phone box on school, so I had a phone card that I could use to call home in the case of any problems.

The first time I used the school bus, I managed to get on the wrong one. I noticed when it got on the motorway, which definitely wasn't on my way home. I got off at the services, found a payphone and called home, but if I'd had a mobile then I'd have been able to call home from the bus and check where the best place to get off was.

And, on a more prosaic level, having a mobile phone later (I got mine when I was 16, which was when cheap pre-pay ones started to appear), it was useful to be able to call my parents if some after-school activity was cancelled, or something else happened that required me to leave school at a different time, such as when one of my close friends was killed in a car accident, or when I was coopted to the debate team at the last minute before a competition.

Re:Somebody tell the schools

[mlush]

So they can call for help if they have problems getting home. Very useful in more rural areas. My local primary school is about 200 meters away, so perhaps not so useful in a large town.

This. Our boy has had one since he was 10 but didn't use it much till he went to secondary school.

Has locked himself out twice (second time he phoned to ask where the spare key was hidden:-). He hasn't missed the school bus yet but its only a matter of time, Coming back from school trips to say when he's actually getting back as a pose to when he's scheduled to get back. If we get separated (deliberately on not) in town its useful to reorganize a meet-up point.

This is not helicopter parenting, its just maintaining a basic level of communication. Its the simple things like being able to call ahead and say were going to be late that make it worth every penny.

Re:Somebody tell the schools

[Sqr(twg)]

Parental responsibility means teaching your kids to take care of themselves, and also to make sure they get healthy habits, such as walking instead of driving when they need to travel short distances. In the last few decades, there has been a trend in a few western countries of driving kids everywhere and forbidding them to play outside unsupervised. In those same countries, child and young adult obesity rates have exploded. Coincidence?

Letting 9-year-old kids walk home from school on their own was the safe and responsible thing to do long before cellphones where invented. Those are just tools that have made it even safer.

Re:Somebody tell the schools

[demonlapin]

When I was 10 I had the run of the neighborhood (about a mile in any direction). I didn't even have to tell my parents where I was going, just that I was going out and would be back before dinner.

Re:Somebody tell the schools

[geekmux]

This may be new to you, but some children actually happen to have a social life. Much of which nowadays inevitably happens online. No facebook/twitter/whatever will mean missing out for an ever increasing number of children.

Also, children need to travel from home to school and back again, often by foot or by bike. How are they going to find the 10 minute timeslot in which they can get there without raining wet when they don't have a phone?! How are they going to call mom to discuss whether they can go play with a friend? How are they going to send in their homework? On paper? LOL. And how are they going to post on slashdot without a phone? Wait until they get home? Sounds kind of 1996ish to me.

That's why children need telephones as well. Simply being young does not mean their needs are that much different from us or they have no right to fulfill those needs with the same technology us adults use for it.

And, no, I'm not talking out of my ass. I'm a dad myself and am not going to accept my children missing out just due to some irrational opinions or incompetent schools.

This may be new to you, but MOST children actually abuse the living shit out of their "social life" and the electronic gadgets that are used to manipulate that environment, causing everything from personal distraction to all out mass interference and manipulation when somethings goes "viral" in school.

That thing we call "school" has a purpose. And contrary to popular belief, it's primary focus is not centered around "facebook/twitter/whatever", so needless to say, cell phones are not at the top of the priority list.

Much like politics, this policy serves the lesser of two evils. You want cell phones in school, then get the majority of kids to stop abusing the shit out of them(not just social networking either, cheating capability is almost unlimited) and shift the lesser of two evils to the side that you prefer, and policy will likely change.

Since I just read that a school recently equipped the entire Kindergarten class with iPads as a test pilot, I'd say that schools are actively looking at alternate ways of teaching, so it's not a complete head-in-the-sand approach and attitude here.

Re:Somebody tell the schools

[acidreverb]

Even my schools back in the 60s and 70s had landlines that could be used by the students. My daughter's schools (she graduated just a couple yrs ago), had phones in the office that could be used.

In the 90's, at my high-school, the office was closed after school hours. If one didn't have money for a payphone, there were no phones a student could use. My only option, on more than one occasion, was to call collect. With payphones quickly disappearing, I'm not even sure if that's an option anymore.

I appreciate you're pragmatism. But your personal situation is not universal.

Re:Somebody tell the schools

[AJH16]

What you are talking about isn't a problem with the technology but a problem with personal responsibility that nobody wants to teach their kids anymore. As a perfect example, my elementary, middle and high schools had a very similar philosophy when it came to the school computers and had then locked down a bunch to "prevent distraction." You know what, it had a severe negative effect on my ability to get what I needed to do done, so I, as a responsible student, bypassed the security measures they had put in place to do what I needed. I never once got in trouble for it (I got talked to once when they were concerned about a part of the network I was looking at to see what permissions I had, but never in trouble) because I never abused the power I had gotten for myself and used it for what I needed and only used it to kill time when I didn't have anything else I needed to do.

Obviously what technology is available when is a personal issue that needs to be evaluated based on the individual. I don't think having a cellphone in the classroom is a right or having a smartphone at all is a right, but I do think they can be beneficial devices even for a fairly young child if used properly. I know I got a lot of additional education out of being able to look things up on computers at school and having a constantly available connection to things like Wikipedia and Google to be able to do further research from my desk in the classroom would have been a phenomenal tool that I would have benefited greatly from.

Re:Somebody tell the schools

[SimonTheSoundMan]

A shame they can't do a detention without the parents knowing first, as they have to give them a 24 hour written notice.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1997/44/section/5

(3), (d)the pupil’s parent must have been given at least 24 hours’ notice in writing that the detention was due to take place.

But as for transportation home,

(4)In determining for the purposes of subsection (3)(c) whether a pupil’s detention is reasonable, the following matters in particular shall be taken into account— ....

(b)any special circumstances relevant to its imposition on the pupil which are known to the person imposing it (or of which he ought reasonably to be aware) including in particular— .....

(iv)where arrangements have to be made for him to travel from the school to his home, whether suitable alternative arrangements can reasonably be made by his parent.

Re:Somebody tell the schools

[linuxwolf69]

My daughter has a phone she takes to school. She's also required to turn it off when she gets there (my requirement). She also turns it on when school lets out for the day.

I agree that some parents are not responsible enough, nor do they hold their children up to an adequate standard of responsibility. My daughter's phone is her "ticket" to be able to hang out with friends and go places without us. She knows if she does not do what she's supposed to, and especially if she turns the phone on during school, she will lose it, and thus lose some of her freedom.
If a parent teaches the child proper respect for self, and others, and responsibility, then there isn't a problem with kids having phones, nor taking them to school. Unfortunately it's the few that ruin things for the many.

Re:Somebody tell the schools

[bemymonkey]

Not every country has schools that amount to prisons... here in Germany even elementary school kids are free to come and go as they please and find their own way to and from school.

Ever wonder why carpooling to and from school is so popular in the States and, well, pretty much nowhere else in the world?

Re:Somebody tell the schools

[trigpoint]

nobody in the developed world *needs* a mobile phone, since there are payphones and landlines.

The birth of the mobile phone era has killed payphones.

When I was growing up in the 1970s I was always encouraged to carry 2p to use a payphone. Nowadays there are fewer payphones, and when I recently used one I was shocked at how expensive they are to use. Outside built up areas many no longer accept coins, and require a credit/debit card, which children don't normally have.

Shoddy journalism and misleading statistics.

[sarabob]

The source says 'children as young as four' have mobiles, meaning that 55% of all 4-9 year olds must have a mobile in order for the "33% of under tens" to be true

One-third of 8-10 year olds I can believe (most people I know are getting their kids phones when they start secondary school at 10-11), but 55% of 4-9 less so.

Re:Shoddy journalism and misleading statistics.

[old man moss]

Yes, we got our 11 year old a mobile when he started at secondary school. But there is a difference between "has a mobile" and "uses a mobile". His phone stays in his bag, turned off, mostly. In fact, he didn't really want a phone, since he sees his friends all the time anyway. So really it is only there for his parents' peace of mind "in case of emergency".

Wow

[yacc143]

In other news the sun raises usually somewhere in the east.

What are mobiles useful for kids? Coordinate with their parents. E.g. call parents after school, I'm meeting now friend X. Or I'm stuck there and there, could you please come pick me up [happened when our daughter used first public transport to get to school], please hurry today after school home, we've got a doctor's appointment, Hi kid, we are out doing XY, don't wonder if nobody is home, we'll be home in an hour.

That's probably why even kids from poor families/single parent households have mobiles usually in primary school here around, because these are that need usually the most coordination to manage the day.

Now, for a 10 years old, some mobile will not do, the minimum is a low end Android, with a surprising number of kids carrying high end Androids and iPhones 4, at least at the school of my daughter. (And no it's not private run for rich people, it's just a normal state-run middle school, despite being called Junior Highschool) OTOH, the Galaxy SII is cool enough that I managed to wean my daughter of the evil products of the iFruit salad company.

Considering confiscations, her school has a very pragmatic approach, phones are to be turned off and left in the locker in the morning and are turned on again when leaving the school. That serves quite well the coordination thing => one can call the school if something needs immediate action during the day, all other coordination can be sent via SMS, hence the kid gets the message when it turns on the phone, ... Naturally that does not work everywhere, because it assumes that each kid has his own safe locker.

Re:Wow

[Inda]

Coordinating with parents has caused its own problems with my daughter and her friends. They're at the age where they walk to school on their own but are not old enough to leave the local area on bus.

Every single minor problem results in a phone call to us. They panic when someone cries. A grazed knee seems like a broken leg. Back in my day (GOML), dealing with these issues gave independence.

Credit is king, not Android or Blackberry. It doesn't matter what phone you have if you haven't got minutes. Chores for minutes works well here. I haven't washed-up in years.

Complete crap

[lucm]

> The extent to which today's youngsters rely on technology was revealed following a study of 2,000 parents of children aged ten and under.

From this study they draw conclusions like the 1/3 nonsense in the headline. Incredibly accurate.

> Broadband providers in the UK may be forced to offer parents ways of protecting their children from harmful online content as part of a new Communications Act.
[...]
> Westcoastcloud has just released its internet security product Netintelligence as an App on iTunes for use in schools and will be releasing a home-use version later this year.

Now this whole thing makes sense. This is not about statistics, this is about marketing.

In Japan

[Kagetsuki]

We have cell phones specifically for children.
http://www.au.kddi.com/seihin/ichiran/kishu/mamorino/index.html

If you pull the tab an alarm goes off. The Phone has 24/7 tracking, and it's one touch to call parents. Service isn't expensive either, certainly reasonable for worried parents. Above that are a whole selection of cell phones with features specifically tailored to children of specific age ranges and services are tailored to them so parents can do things like block features or put limits on things - but inter family communication is always free and always-on remote location tracking is on every model.

I guess they don't have the same phones and services in the UK?