cellphone overkill?

May 29, 2008 at 3:59 pm Leave a comment

Sure seems like it – in view of the alarmingly rising cases of addiction to the mobile Internet, AP reports that the Japanese government plans to initiate a program to limit use of cellphones among children – which includes asking cellphone makers to bring out a range of models with only voice and global positioning system (GPS) features. Had highlighted this concern among parents in an earlier post but the Japanese government is probably the first government to initiate concrete steps. It’s however going to be next to impossible to wean away kids from the mobile Internet with voice-only phone models, a more reasonable approach would be to look at ways to control and manage usage. The key however perhaps lies closer home – parents probably just need to spend more time with their children.

The government is worried about how elementary and junior high school students are getting sucked into cyberspace crimes, spending long hours exchanging mobile e-mail and suffering other negative effects of cell phone overuse, Masaharu Kuba, a government official overseeing the initiative, said.

“Japanese parents are giving cell phones to their children without giving it enough thought,” he said.