Opinion Story

   

The Use of Cellphones

     Kids should not have phones at a very young age because it affects them for their learning. Also at a young age around 8-10 years old kids are still developing and phone affect their sleep as well as their vision. 

     Parents that have their kids in elementary schools are starting to buy phones for their kids thinking is a good idea for protection but what they are not seeing is that the phones are disturbing the kids in their education. Nowadays, 20 percent of third-grade boys and 18 percent of third-grade girls already have a cell phone, according to a 2011 study of 20,766 Massachusetts elementary, middle, and high school students. 

     Having a cell phone not only affects the kids on their education but in their sleep too. At night when kids are suppose to go to sleep and rest to be efficient in school and also grow more they start texting or playing games without their parents knowing. Pediatricians are seeing growing evidence that cell phones, especially those that allow kids to text, can disrupt children's sleep patterns.

     When kids have an electronic on their power is hard for them to concentrate on their homework or academic classes.  One study was from researchers from the College of Education Health and Human Services at Kent State University in Ohio on under- graduate students. They linked cell phone usage levels to GPA scores and anxiety levels. The higher a student’s cell phone use, the lower the grades and the higher the anxiety

     A child disconnects him or herself from the world around them when they use electronics too much. They seem to forget what the world is like. A study published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, found that 6th graders who went five days without exposure to technology were significantly better at reading human emotions than kids who had regular access to phones, televisions and computers

     Another reason children should not have phones too soon is because they can get bullied by their classmates through Internet. Sometimes kids go to far with their insults because they don't understand how much they hurt other causing them to hurt themselves or worst. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people according to the centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s about 4,400 deaths every year. 

     Kids are not always protected specially when their parents do not pay much attention to their children. Most kids either don't know how or simply don't keep their social media on private and that is dangerous. only 61% of youth use privacy settings on their social media sites and 52% don’t turn off their location or GPS services. This leaves their locations visible to strangers.

     Cell phone are not only dangerous for children because of Internet an social media but there is a chance that using the phone a lot can cause brain cancer. It is very dangerous specially for the kids they are still developing. Estimations of 400,000-500,000 new cases of brain cancer related to cell phone use in 2010 were made.  The jury is still out on this one, but why put your child at risk?

     These are a lot of reasons why a child should not have a cell phone too early in life. It can affect them a lot in their life and education. Parents should think more about giving their child a phone because is the same as if they were giving their child a weapon.