Contact: Hillary Bates
Highlights Corporate Communications
habates@highlights-corp.com or 614-487-2640
June 27, 2008 (Columbus, OH)—Over the last decade, mobile phones have become part of Americans daily lives, including the lives of children. In a poll released today by HighlightsParents.com, a website by Highlights for Children that provides information to families and a place to exchange parenting tips, parents reported their conflicted feelings on this new feature of the parenting landscape.
Parents responded to the site's poll on how and when they and their kids use mobile phones. An overwhelming majority, (97%) reported owning a cell phone themselves, but only a third (31%) had given a phone to their child. Most (62%) had a mixed response to its overall presence in their daily life, calling it "useful, but annoying."
Seventy-three percent of respondents selected 13 or older as the appropriate age to give a child a cell phone. Only a quarter (24%) thought it was "OK" for 9 to 12 year olds to have cell phones, and a meager number (3%) were comfortable with children between 5 and 8 years of age carrying mobile technology. Regardless of age, a minority (23%) reported being comfortable with cell phones being allowed in schools.
Despite many comments that reflected worries that cell phones are distracting to kids and disrupt family time, school and other activities, many parents felt that they wanted their child to be easy to reach in case of emergencies, even while at school. Others felt differently. One parent commented, "As kids, we survived without cell phones. I think our kids can, too."
"While there are clear benefits to the use of a cell phone, parents need to make their expectations about its use clear from the start," says Istar Schwager Ph.D., educational psychologist and consulting editor of HighlightsParents.com. "In addition to insisting that phones remain off at family meals and other gatherings, parents should talk with their kids about the negative consequences of constant talking and texting, revealing too much, sending inappropriate photos, and ‘cyberbullying.'" Additional tips are available at HighlightsParents.com.
HighlightsParents.com is created by Highlights for Children, the publisher of Highlights magazine, the most widely-read children's magazine in the nation, and Highlights High Five, a magazine for children ages 2-6 and an AEP, Parents' Choice, and iParenting Media Award winner. HighlightsParents.com offers articles on coping with day-to-day conflicts such as child-care, homework, discipline and sibling rivalry, activities to do with kids, as well as parent-to-parent advice from readers.
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