The Open Haversack continues to address a potpourri of issues confronting children, parents and education. This article focuses on a small, wonderful, convenient and fun gadget that nearly half of all primary school children and almost all secondary school children carry – the cellphone.
There is much debate on whether or not children should be allowed to carry them to school and many parents believe that it is a must and should be part of their children’s haversacks. Parents argue that cellphone technology is the best way for them to communicate with their child in the event of an emergency, and vice versa.
In reality, cellphones have definitely become a status symbol for children. If they do not have one of the latest types, they are often looked down on by their peers and seen as “cheap”. Children therefore clamour for the latest, more expensive and more up to date cellphones so as to identify with their peers.
But why is the cellphone of such significance to children?
This little tool is used to play games, listen to MP3 music, text-message, violate personal privacy, make pornographic movies and cheat in school, among other things.
Parents have more difficulty monitoring Internet activity on a cellphone than a home computer. Children no longer have to hide and waste time flipping through pages of pornographic magazines that are big and cumbersome and easy to detect – with their new technology and the Net, they can access adult websites and videos while sitting in the classroom or right in their living room.
They are into “sexting” – the intersection of promiscuity and technology where children send racy images and videos of themselves or of friends taken at home, in classrooms or even bathrooms at school to other mobile phones, or upload and post them to the Internet.
Texting is the norm and sexual text messages are becoming the rule more than the exception among children as young as nine and ten and into their teenage years. Children are engaging in obscene texting that would make you shudder, anywhere, any time since they are so skilled that they do not need to see the keys as their fingers do the texting.
Parents need to become technologically savvy and understand the “new language” of children so they are not left behind. They need to be cognizant that texting and sexting cost money and query where children are sourcing the money to maintain this habit if not from home.
Parents also need to check cellphones periodically. Look at the pictures taken and be “watchdogs” of these activities. It is not a matter of not trusting your child or invading your child’s privacy, but being aware of what is happening in his or her day-to-day life.
Should you find that your child is engaging in such activities, have open dialogue and do not allow your anger to rise to the point where your child is afraid to talk to you.
Rhonda A. Blackman is an educator, National Development Scholar and former president of the Early Childhood Association Of Barbados Inc.; share your comments, questions and concerns at [email protected].
