Introduction
The rationale behind this research paper ‘should parents prohibit children to use their mobile phone’ is based on the growing impact that the devices have had over the last two decades not only on children, but other people too. There is no doubt that the devices have had many positive effects on people’s lives and allowed them to perform actions like sending a quick text to let your parents know your safe without having to rush back to your house to let your parents know you are okay. However, there is also growing evidence to suggest that mobile phones are starting to have a negative impact upon children’s lives in recent years due to the impact the devices can have in impacting upon children’s education.
There has been a significant debate among different scholars as to whether or not parents should start prohibiting the use of mobile phones for children due to the devices having a significant impact upon children’s social skills and academic impairment. Some scholars would certainly agree that this is the case. For example, Bauman suggests that many children can take advantage of the devices to engage in cyberbullying which allows them to achieve ends that they might not be able to do in person which involves making another child’s life miserable (154). However, there is also a case among scholars to suggest that mobile phones have actually revolutionised the way children interact with their parents and that they are now a means for keeping children safe. Coronia argues that because of mobile phones parents can now know where their child is and who they are spending time with which helps ease their anxieties significantly (105).
The research paper behind this paper seeks to investigate whether or not parents should start top prohibit their children to use their mobile phones. The hypothesis for this paper will suggest that ultimately parents should not prohibit the use of their children’s mobile phones because mobile phones can be incredibly useful when it comes to informing parents about their child’s whereabouts. The majority of parents can play a significant role in ensuring that children are gradually eased into using a mobile phone. However, this paper will also argue that in order to prevent children from falling back on their academic education as a result of the potential distractions that mobile phones can cause. This paper will propose that for future research, the effects of cyberbullying need to be investigated further as well as ways to educate parents into preventing it.
Methodology
In order to investigate the research question and the hypothesis behind this paper, the research behind this paper will involve investigating the conclusions that many scholars have come to based on their own research and evidence. This paper will use books and articles to help provide evidence for the research question and hypothesis behind this statement that contain evidence such as interviews with children who provide their own opinions on the advantages of mobile phones, case studies of different families, scientific studies that investigate the impact mobile phones may or may not have on children’s impairment and studies from other countries that show the impact mobile phones can have on different children.
Results and findings of the research project
Some scholars argue that mobile phones have had more of an impact on parents than children and that it should be parents who should be restricted in their usage of mobile phones. Luton has studied many different families when it comes to mobile phone usage and has discovered that parents are often spending time on their mobile phones in the evenings instead of helping children with their homework or taking an interest in their children’s education generally (4). Luton suggests that this has had an impact in other ways as parents are not taking the time to discuss their children’s education with their teachers and that parents, as opposed to children, should be restricted in their use of mobile phones (4). This is an interesting argument because it seems to suggest that parents are the ones who are being irresponsible with their use of mobile phones and are destroying interaction between parents and children as well as the impact technology is having on families generally.
Evidence from other scholars seems to suggest that parents should be setting a good example when it comes to encouraging their children to use technology. Wang argues that parents can have a significant impact when encouraging their children to use technology (42). Wang provides an interesting case study when looking at Jessica’s family as her family encourage Jessica to have controlled access to devices like mobile phones at certain times whilst encouraging her to develop social skills and that interaction with the family is important (42). This shows that not all families are like the ones that Luton studied and that many families realise the importance technology can play in children’s families whilst at the same time realising that basic values like communication with the family are equally important. Many of those skills that mobile phone usage can encourage include children informing their parents about their whereabouts when they are not at home.
Coronia suggests that mobile phones have played a part in revolutionising parents’ responsibilities because they allow children to be trusted with using a mobile phone device and providing them with autonomy to carry out their own responsibilities to inform parents of their safety (105). Coronia discusses how a girl called Sophie understood how mobile phones encourage safety for children and a girl called Antonia who understood that mobile phones allow parents to immediately contact children if there are any issues and where they are (105). This demonstrates the advantages of allowing parents to not prohibit their children into using mobile phones because they help make possible the benefits not available to children before mobile phones were invented in terms of encouraging safety and responsibility among children.
There have been many claims that mobile phones can inflict scientific damage upon children because they can heat the brain and cause children’s reaction times to be slower (Thomson 204). However, Thomson successfully dismisses those claims by suggesting that mobile phones have not been scientifically proven to heat children’s brains and that if this argument is going to be a basis for parents prohibiting children’s use of mobile phones, then perhaps they should do the same for hats too (204). There has been no scientific evidence that mobile phones slow down children’s reaction times (Thomson 204). Whilst this evidence has not been proven yet, it shows that the case for parents having to prohibit the use of mobile phones is not yet strong enough and that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages so far.
However, when it comes to academic performance, there is a lot parents can learn from other cultures when it comes to their children’s education. After studying the impact mobile phones have on children in India, Sancho suggests that because parents in India have adapted their values of dutiful progeny in a world of globalisation by instilling in children that they have a duty to succeed in their education and that good marks in class and in exams are the equivalent to being paid well for doing a job properly (164). In order to prevent the benefits of modern technology offered to Indian children by globalisation, Sancho argues that parents prohibit children from using their mobile phones whilst they are studying and that the positive effects that this has on children is an improvement in their grades (164). However, this does not suggest that parents in India are prohibiting children from using their mobile phones at all, but only when it comes to their studies. Mobile phones can inevitably have an impact on children’s education because they provide so many distractions like social networking sites and games. Perhaps if parents can prohibit children’s use of mobile phones in these circumstances, then children will continue to realise the importance of gaining a decent education. This is increasingly proving to be the case in Britain as some are proposing that parents take more action to restrict children’s use of mobile phones before they attend school.
Doward suggests that between 2007-12, the number of schools banning children from using their mobile phones has increased from fifty per cent to ninety-eight per cent and as a result, children have been able to claim back an hour of study time (The Guardian). As a consequence of successfully being able to ban mobile phones, Doward suggests that students aged sixteen have seen their exam scores improve by six per cent (The Guardian). This shows that mobile phones do impact upon pupils’ performance at schools and that when it comes to the access children can have to mobile phones, parents should play a part in prohibiting their use when it comes to school or teach them not to use them whilst studying.
Nevertheless, there are other ways parents can have a responsibility in encouraging their children to use their phones appropriately. Bauman suggests that fifteen per cent of children engage in cyberbullying and use their friends’ phones to send text messages to people they do not like, but parents find this very hard to prove when they confront their child (154). Bauman argues that both parents and children need to be made aware of the dangers of allowing other people to use their mobile phones to help prevent cyberbullying (154). This shows that more can be done now in the future to help raise awareness of the threats mobile phones can cause and rather than prohibit children’s use of mobile phones, parents can carry on playing a part in educating children about the potential dangers they pose.
Conclusion
The purpose behind this research project was to investigate whether or not parents should prohibit children’s use of mobile phones based on the advantages and disadvantages of the devices. The hypothesis for this paper suggested that ultimately parents should not prohibit the use of their children’s mobile phones because mobile phones can be incredibly useful when it comes to informing parents about their child’s whereabouts and the majority of parents can play a significant role in ensuring that children are gradually eased into using a mobile phone
The research behind this paper has discovered that mobile phones pose a significant number of advantages for children and that parents should not prohibit children’s use of mobile phones when it comes to ensuring that children ease parents’ anxieties by informing them of their whereabouts. Parents can at times become more easily distracted than children when it comes to using a mobile phone so parents should take on more responsibility in encouraging their children to use their mobile phones safely and responsibly. There is also a lack of sufficient scientific evidence that mobile phones can damage children’s health and that should not be used as a reason to prohibit children’s use of mobile phones.
However, there has been growing evidence that mobile phones can impact upon children’s studies. Nevertheless, parents in countries like India restrict children’s use of mobile phones when it comes to their studies and the results have proven that this can have a positive effect on children’s education. It is now becoming the case for parents in Britain to encourage children not to use their phones in school as their studying can improve as a result.
The research also suggests that there is a growing need to study the impact that mobile phones can have on children in regards to cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is a growing threat among children and it needs to be tackled sooner rather than later. This research suggests that more needs to be done to educate parents and children about the dangers of cyberbullying and allowing children to use other children’s mobile phones. The future direction of research must be to investigate ways to prevent cyberbullying, the numbers of children engaging in cyberbullying and the impact that this can have on children at a time when many other devices are being used to encourage children to engage in cyberbullying such as social networking sites.
Works cited:
Bauman, Sheri. “Cyberbullying in the United States.” Cyberbullying Global Playground: Research from International Perspectives. Eds. Qing Li, Donna Cross and Peter Smith. Oxford: John Wiley and Sons, 2011. 143-166. Print.
This source presents a useful analysis as to how mobile phones can cause more harm than good when it comes to the field of cyberbullying. This source presents an interesting analysis about how parents can find it very difficult to regulate children’s activity on mobile phones in terms of cyberbullying and raises awareness of the issue. However, the source could present more concrete solutions to tackle cyberbullying as opposed to just suggesting that there needs to be more awareness of the issue. This source will be used to explain the disadvantages of allowing children to use mobile phones when parents do not restrict children’s use of technology.
Doward, Jamie. Schools that ban mobile phones see better academic results. The Guardian, 2015. Web. 25 June 2015. <http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/may/16/schools-mobile-phones-academic-results>
This source helps to explain the advantages of parents restricting children’s access to a mobile phone when they attend school and presents a useful analysis to show how mobile phone usage impacts upon academic performance. Despite this, this source is rather one-sided and fails to explain how mobile phones could actually be an advantage for a child’s education as they can assist children in their research and can have useful apps that can assist children in their education. This source will be used to analyse whether or not parents restricting children’s mobile phones in regards to education can be an advantage.
Letizia, Coronia. “Growing Up Wireless: Being a Parent and Being a Child in the Age of Mobile Communication.” Digital Literacy: Tools and Methodologies for Information Society Ed. Pier Cesare Rivoltella. Hershey: IGI Global, 2008. 99-121. Print.
This source is useful in showing how parental responsibilities have evolved in a modern day age as a consequence of mobile phones. For example, because of mobile phones parents are able to text their children to see where they are and who they are hanging out with. It also presents an alternative point of view to show how understanding children are about their parents’ anxieties. However, it does not show the negative effects that mobile phone usage can have on children when they are not under parental supervision such as at school. Perhaps this source could show how restrictive parents should be with mobile phones in certain circumstances. This source will be used to present the advantages of mobile phone usage for children.
Luton, Dave. Life is a Wonderful Opportunity not to be An Idiot. Raleigh: Lulu.com, 2015. Web. 24 June 2015.
This source will be used to analyse whether or not children should be restricted in terms of using mobile phones. This source is useful in explaining the impact that parents using their mobile phones have on children and puts forward an interesting analysis that it should be parents, and not children, who should be restricted in using their mobile phones. However, this source does not present any arguments to suggest why mobile phones are useful or bad for children.
Sancho, David. “Aspirational Regimes: Parental Education Practice and the New Indian Youth Discourse.” Enterprise Culture in Neoliberal India: Studies in Youth, Class, Work and Media. Ed. Nadini Gootpu. London: Routledge, 2013. 159-170. Print.
This source provides an interesting analysis into how parents are very restrictive in terms of mobile phone usage when it comes to academic study to ensure that children are not impacted by the temptation to be distracted using mobile phones whilst studying. This source also shows the impact that mobile phone usage has on academic study. However, the source only analyses one culture and does not look at the effects of mobile phone usage on other countries. This source will be used to compare and contrast the effects of mobile phone usage in one culture to others.
Thomson, Anne. Critical Reasoning 3e: A Practical Introduction. London: Routledge, 2009. Print.
This source is really useful in terms of suggesting that there is no sufficient scientific evidence yet that mobile phones can do significant harm to the brain development of children. The author suggests for this reason that children should not be restricted in terms of mobile phone usage. However, the source fails to explain what the advantages or disadvantages for children using a mobile phone are. This source will be used to analyse the claims that mobile phones can do harm to children.
Wang, X.C. “Young Children’s Technology Experiences in Multiple Contexts.” High-tech Tots: Childhood in a Digital World. Eds. Ilene R. Benson and Michael J. Berson. Charlotte: IAP, 2010. 27-44. Print.
This source presents an interesting case study as to how parents can play a leading role in regulating and supervising children into using mobile phones. This source also presents a detailed analysis as to how parents can gradually ease children into using technology so that they are responsible when using technology. However, the source only presents one case study and does not show the disadvantages of children not being eased into using technology. The source does not show how irresponsible children can also be when using mobile phones. Despite this, this source will be used as an example as to how parents can play an influential role when it comes to children using technology.
