August 30, 2004
Seven-year-olds carrying mobile phones
A new survey by Norway's dominant telecommunications company Telenor revealed that mobile use by children is enjoying explosive growth, reports Aftenposten.
"In 2002 only eight percent of 7-9 year-olds had cell phones, a year later this number had doubled to one in six having mobiles. In the age group 10-11 years 58 percent use mobiles, up 12 percent points in a year.
Berit Skog, a researcher at NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), said there were positive effects. Parents could now find and make contact with their children more easily and writing text messages is considered good literacy training.
The Telenor study is also attracting attention abroad as Norway is the first country in the world to have an age group with 100 percent saturation of mobile phones.
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2004/08/005126.htm