A New York Times article on children and cellphones failed to provide the slightest hint that cellphone radiation is particularly dangerous to children, enraging health advocates.
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The July 21 article was by "lead consumer technology writer" Brian X. Chen. Before joining NYT in 2011 he was at Wired, where his reporting on Apple and the wireless industry led to the publication of Always On, a book about the smartphone’s influence on society, business and culture.
He also helped create TheWirecutter.com, a product recommendation website. He lives in San Francisco.
Chen’s article, headlined, “What’s the Right Age for a Child to Get a Smartphone?” said children are getting phones at “around ten,” according to research.
One problem he cites, is easy access to pornography, which begins in some children as early as eight and becomes an addiction around age 11. He quotes Jesse Weinberger, author of the “internet safety book” The Bogeyman Exists: He’s in Your Child’s Back Pocket. She surveyed 70,000 children over an 18-month period.
Another problem he finds is the phone brings “distracting games, sexting apps and social media apps where online bullies are on the prowl.” Such cons may outweigh the pros, says Weinberger.
Child Safety Sites Ignored
Ignored by the article are numerous websites documenting the physical harm to children by misuse of cellphones and computers including the postings of the National Assn. for Children and Safe Technology, co-founded by Diane Hickey.
NYT heavily promotes its own “Virtual Reality” stories that require the head to be incased in a box that floods the brain with radiation so that a “3-D” effect can be obtained. Health advocates are alarmed at such devices but note it may take time for brain damage to become documented.
Cindy Sage, Ph.D., and Dr. Martha Herbert, specialist in pediatric autism at Mass. General Hospital, are publicizing a list of precautions with cellphones and computers that should be prominently displayed in schools, libraries and public places.
“More American children will be diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Condition this year than with AIDS, diabetes, and cancer combined,” they say. “ASCs cost the U.S. $137 billion a year and have been categorized by the CDC as a national public health crisis.”
Shut Down Wi-Fi in Schools, Libraries
The Library of Paris, two multi-story buildings, banned Wi-Fi in 2008 at the behest of the staff. Haifa, the third largest city in Israel, shut down Wi-Fi in the schools earlier this year. Berkeley, Calif., passed a law requiring cellphone packaging to prominently display warnings that phones should be kept away from the head and body and not carried in pants or shirt pockets or tucked into a bra.
List of Sage/Herbert:
• No cellphones in pants pocket or on the belt
• No cellphone use during pregnancy
• No wireless laptops
• No iPads at school, no wireless anything
• No cellphones for children, particularly iPhones
• No cordless phones
• No baby monitors or wireless surveillance monitoring
• No compact fluorescent bulbs
• Keep cellphone on the desk or away from body
• Mothers use corded phones
• Have wired computers, laptops, keyboards, mouse
• Wire classrooms for internet
• Use cable modem instead of wireless
• Use corded landline phones
• Use your ears and eyes instead of baby monitors
• Use regular incandescent bulbs
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