Cellphone for kids?

Rogers launches cellphone for kids
Firefly design includes parental control
U.S. consumer group raises concerns

TYLER HAMILTON AND ROBERT CRIBB
STAFF REPORTERS

Rogers Wireless Inc. has become the first Canadian mobile phone provider to introduce a cellphone designed specifically for children as young as eight.

The Canadian launch of the brightly coloured Firefly phone, which costs as much as $149.99 and is being touted as a way for parents to keep in touch with "the people who matter most," comes after a consumer advocacy group co-founded by Ralph Nader petitioned U.S. Congress to investigate the marketing and sale of cellphones to children.

The group, citing unanswered questions related to health, social and privacy impacts on children, said putting cellphones into the hands of such a young population could open up a "plethora of problems" with unknown long-term consequences ?- everything ranging from interruptions in learning environments to possible health problems affecting the ear and brain.

"Once the phones are in the classrooms, playrooms, and in the children's bedrooms, it will be too late," states a letter from Commercial Alert, whose board includes Nader, popular children's singer Raffi, and Brita Butler-Wall, president of the Seattle School Board.

Suzanne McMeans, a spokeswoman for Rogers Wireless, said the company has done independent focus groups and found that both parents and their children demand a service such as Firefly, which only has five dial keys and can be programmed by parents to limit use and abuse.

She said the company's marketing, while it will mostly target parents, will also speak directly to children through a promotional campaign with children's television channel YTV.

"We do feel it's important to speak to (children) directly and treat them with respect," said McMeans, adding that the company would not comment on events south of the border. "We don't think it would be appropriate to comment on congressional discussions taking place in the U.S."

An investigative series last month by the Toronto Star found that the wireless industry is increasingly marketing to children despite uncertainties about the long-term health impact of wireless signals.

Some scientists, citing the thinner skulls and still-developing nervous systems of children, say it could take decades to prove or disprove whether radiation exposure from cellphones can lead to health consequences such as brain tumours, eye cancers and Alzheimer's later in life.

"Can (the industry) guarantee that children will suffer no adverse health effects from the use of mobile phones? If not, then why is it offering mobile phones to children?" states the Commercial Alert letter, which was sent to commerce committee members at both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

The wireless industry, while recognizing the need for more research, says the phones are safe and meet all emission standards set by government.

Cellphone use by children has grown 140 per cent since 2001, according to Milwaukee-based research firm SpectraCom, which found in a recent North American and European survey that the average young user spends two hours a day talking on the devices.

Top Canadian health officials, including Dr. Sheela Basrur, Ontario's chief public health officer, and Dr. David Butler-Jones, head of the Public Health Agency of Canada, have urged caution around the non-essential use of cellphones by children.

Last year, Britain's health agency urged similar precautionary limits and asked cellphone providers to avoid marketing to children. Health Canada has issued no such message.

Rogers, while the first to offer a cellphone in Canada designed for kids, joins a growing list of U.S. wireless carriers, entertainment companies and toy makers eager to tap the potentially lucrative pre-teen market.

This summer, Walt Disney Co. and Mattel Inc. announced plans to come out with "kiddie" phones, the former branded with popular Disney characters and content and the latter modelled on the Barbie "My Scene" toy line.

Canada's mobile phone providers, including Bell Mobility and Telus Mobility, all offer access to mobile content that would appeal to young children, and earlier this year one U.S. wireless carrier began offering video clips of Sesame Street characters on mobile phones.

Officials behind the Firefly phone say parents control how much time a child can spend on the phone as well as whom the child can call and receive calls from.

But Commercial Alert, citing a number of other different child-focused cellphones entering the market, says the coming mobile onslaught is a bad idea.

"If the Disney Corporation and others just wanted to give children a way to contact parents in emergencies, that would be one thing," the group states.

"But despite the industry's rhetoric, Disney and the telecommunications companies really want to use children as conduits to their parents' wallets."