There's a report in The Age about tweens, kids 6-12, getting into mobile phones. The fearsome angle concerns marketing, with one expert worrying about tweens becoming overmarketed and too commercialized.
This will probably emerge as one element of the mobile phone fear meme.
(thanks to Sean Fitzgerald)
Although this article contains some legitimate concerns about the impact of mobile phone ownership on tweens what particularly caught my eye about this article was the language.
With a title like "Mobile phone culture puts kids at risk" and quotes like "It is an ethos that is not only harmful to childhood development but, in the case of mobile phones, very costly." it makes a play for parents' fears about a social and technological phenomenon they don't really understand, appreciate or value from the other side of the generationonal divide.
And as with other similar technologies popular with youth - MMOGs, MySpace, even the Net itself - the effect is to just demonise the technology, rather than appreciating that it is part of youth culture and here to stay, and encouraging parents to familiarise themselves with the pros and cons of these technologies and educate their children on their wise and safe use.
Posted by: Sean FitzGerald | February 24, 2007 at 15:22