Children get first mobile at average age of 8

[missD]

Valid points but, I remember a time when everyone- children and adults - got along fine without cellphones. Adults sudden dependance on this piece of technology has brushed off on the kiddies, because now all of a sudden we need to be able to communicate with our kids all the time. What ever happen to good ol' trust? Yes I understand times have changed, but dont you think that the changes are directly associated with the advancement of technology? I could around in circles about how technology can be good and bad. But at the end of the day the reality of it is that... technology is the new black

[garthu]

Agreed. We could all go round in circles with valid points both sides. But, Insulin, to not trust at all! Don't you think that comes across as maybe an issue to the child.

Do you trust your children and the answer is NO you don’t because they are children and will make mistakes

Thats STRONG! I feel i do trust the children in general. What i cant trust is what's around them.. thats where i lack trust. Agreed they gonna stuff up with just about everything, but the best lessons in life i have had is where i got things wrong, not right. Surely theres gotta be trust to attempt the right decision, learn from the wrong (we have to stop them from the life threatening situations, agreed)

Dunno am I wishing upon a star here??

[missD]

i agree garth. i think the lack of trust is the reason that kids have the problems they are dealing with these days. kids are so absorbed by technology, what ever happened to playing outside instead of surfing the net or playing xbox??

[twinscythe12332]

trust is an integral part to a child's growing up. you will never be able to be there all the time, and kids have a way of slipping away unnoticed the thing is to instill a good set of values and best practices with the child. When I think about it, my parents instilled a good set of values to follow. rules were rarely broken because I understood what they were there for (and a tight smack would await me if i strayed over the line :P). The problem here is that parents are no longer taking the time to instill these rules, or don't enforce these rules. We all know what the greater society is like. I learnt an entirely new vocabulary while at school(we all know the one). So if the parents aren't teaching their kids, then soicety will take over. we're social through and through. there wouldn't be such a thing as "peer pressure" if we weren't. what happens when a child makes a mistake? let's take the example of a 17 year old taking drugs. he takes them for a while then has an overdose because he's trying to show to his friends he's one of the brus. gets to hospital, gets sorted out, gets sent back out into the world. who tells him he did something wrong?

[insulin]

Before my mobile phone I had to walk to the closed petrol station when my old car broke down. Before the mobile phone you had to run around for a working public phone when your best friend was stabbed in the stomach and bleeding to death. That is what we did when the mobile phone was still just a dream. I can recall many situations that could have been avoided if I had a mobile phone back in the day.

Secondly technology is not a bad thing. I hate it when people talk about the good old days because those days were not so good... Yes people get killed because some lowlife wanted his mobile and money. In the good old days you just got killed for your money so what exactly have changed? Still it is not the phone’s fault that we have lowlife murdering scum running around killing people for the love of killing. I don’t care how you see the world. The fact is technology is here to stay and I for one will embrace all technology even cloning that most people find disgusting and wrong, I will endorse because we need to better ourselves as a species or we have lost the battle with evolution.

A healthy mind must have a healthy body, thus video games must now evolve to physical development and it has. Playing outside with friends is an innocent activity and sounds good and fun and yes human interaction in the real world is invaluable. However I would rather see each of those children play and run around with a mobile phone in hand then without one, simply because they can help themselves if the need arises.

Last thing, Trust is earned as is respect. I trust and I respect ONLY if I am trusted and respected.

[insulin]

The reality is we failed this 17 year old. We failed to force government to enforce the law. We failed this child because industry is taking all our time for we must work thus our children is left for the wolfs. We failed this child because WE didn’t say STOP to the money revolution. We failed this child because we will rather listen to teachers and shrinks because we think they know better! We as a community failed this 17 year old by allowing ourselves to be blinded by work and bills and all kinds of things that really doesn’t matter!

You really don’t get it do you... And I don’t mean this in the wrong way but Every... EVERY single grave that hold the body of a young soul is blood on our hands. Because we are too blind to self-obsessed to realise that a child lost his or her young life just because you and I had to work overtime. Just because you and I don’t have the time to listen.

Technology is not the true evil here, it never was. Yes it is made out to be but it is really not. The problem is we must start to think: What can I do without so that I can work less hours and spend more time with my children.

Better yet MAKE IT A LAW! That a mother will only work half-day while the child is at school. And that the Father may have a day in the week to spend with his children! MAKE IT A LAW! That is the only true way.

Don’t tell me it is unrealistic! Don’t tell me that business and production is so critical that you have be a robot 24 7. We can change this system ... But sadly the willpower is simply not there.

I agree with one thing if your child is using drugs it is because I have failed! And it is because you have failed. It is NOT their fault... We the grownups are at fault. We failed to remove the drugs thus the problem exists.

[Chatmaster]

I am one of the guilty parties here. Both me and my wife run our own companies. We are relatively free to decide when we want to do what, but we are very busy. My now 10 year old daughter got her Cellphone when she was 8. It changed our lives a lot. We now know where she is at all times and in terms of safety it certainly has it's benefits. However, I made sure she got a entry level cell phone that are basically only able to phone and SMS. No mixit etc. It is a plain and simple cellphone.

[twinscythe12332]

that's good. I'm dead serious when I say if I had mxit when I was 10, I would be one F**ked up individual. originally it was just messaging between friends who have a cellphone. now there's a "joebanker" place to check your "moola" (mxit money bought with real money), a "tradepost"(where you buy all kinds of useless crap akin to those "get snuggle fluffums the singing bunny on your mobile phone or you won't be cool!" adverts) and chatrooms (which cost moola to send messages in). every time you log in now there's a message from tradepost waiting for you. "check out this awesome cool competition, and these totally awesome backgrounds!!!" and the like.

[insulin]

Again the enemy is not the software that MIXIT uses... The reason behind this software was to send messages cheaply and yes chatting with more than one friend at one time. Companies destroyed these ideals because they knew that a lot of money can be made here. With over 2 million users you know they are making money. However MIXIT and other companies like MIXIT are abused by the depraved and perverted group of individuals that knows how to manipulate young boys and girls to do stupid things like running away from home. This problem is as old as chatting itself.

Now for the solution, the law can force companies like MIXIT to enforce age groups and monitor the chats in rooms and with permission from the parents monitor the private chats between individuals. This means you will have transcripts of every single massage mailed to you every day.

The point is we must force the government to enforce these laws and take interest in our children. Because drugs are a stone trough away from any schools, gymnasiums, colleges, malls and especially clubs. If you think instant chat is a worry, then take a good look at the drug problems we have.

Our children are easy prey for these monsters... Only because we are too weak to do anything about it. It is true we are forever saying this is a problem that is a problem.

Well let me tell you something if we asked the government to develop a tracking system and allow implants of small tracking devices you will know who your child has been talking to and who he or she is with at all times. This will make kidnapping and drug dealing impossible! Because the implants will detect the presence of drugs and alert the police within seconds.

But no! Technology is evil! So think what you want do what you want say what you want but every death is on our hands especially the deaths of children. This makes me both angry and sad... so very sad.

[Chatmaster]

Well let me tell you something if we asked the government to develop a tracking system and allow implants of small tracking devices you will know who your child has been talking to and who he or she is with at all times. This will make kidnapping and drug dealing impossible! Because the implants will detect the presence of drugs and alert the police within seconds.

If government would even think of doing this, I am out of here, seriously! There is no way any government will deprive me of my privacy like that, Yeezzzzz I hope you are not serious about that suggestion.

The key responsibility are not with government it is with the parents. The next thing we will hear is that government will tell parents how to discipline their children, nah parents are the responsible parties not government. Technology are not to blame either but if you create the platform you need to assess the threats and deal with it. Clearly some companies are not dealing with it and that should not be allowed, because then technology becomes the evil.