AT&T Wireless teach kids about wireless

I've been ranting for months about how the cellular industry has done virtually nothing to try to educate school administrators and teachers about the value of camera phones. Now I read how AT&T Wireless' employees have been volunteering to teach young students about cellular, including showing new phones with cameras.

An article today in "Circuits" in The New York Times' technology section has an interesting lead:

"Greg Hartsfield, an engineer with AT&T Wireless, was trying to explain to a class of 18 young people how cellphones work last Saturday afternoon at SciTrek, a science museum here [Atlanta]. A cellphone in a network, he told the teenagers and preteenagers, is like a squirrel in a forest, hopping from tree to tree.

"The young people, participants in a 90-minute free class that the wireless company offers about once a month, were having none of it; their eyes were glazing over. But when Mr. Hartsfield's talk was over, Ronald Thomas, another AT&T Wireless employee, pulled out a camera phone and a Nokia N-Gage, a phone with many gaming features.

"Suddenly the class perked up.

"Students wanted to have their pictures taken with the camera phone, and they asked how to download ring tones. They were fascinated by the N-Gage phone Mr. Thomas passed around."

Good for AT&T Wireless

I wonder if AT&T Wireless is spending any time trying to educate the educators about the value of camera phones?

Although the AT&T Wireless presentations certainly are a way for the company to keep its name before students who are potential customers, they also serve to educate kids and teachers about the value of cellular. The article focuses on the age at which a child should get a cellular phone.

Here's a quote I found interesting: "'It's more of a problem than I want it to be,' said Bob Heath, the principal of W. C. Sullivan Middle School in Rock Hill, S.C. 'Really, there is no need for a middle school child to have a phone. But children are pampered, and parents can't stand for their child not to have one.'"

What's a cellular phone?

I wonder. Is there a need for a middle school child to have pencils, pens, paper and notebooks? Is there a need for a middle school child to use a landline phone? Is there a need for a middle school child to have a CD player, an MP3 player, a camera or a portable game machine?

A cellular phone is a communications tool and, increasingly, an entertainment device. Isn't that what pens, paper, landline phones, MP3 players, etc. are designed to be? You don't have to be an adult to get those.

How old should a child be before he/she gets a cellular phone? Old enough to be able to use it responsibly. If that means eight years old or 16 years old, the key word is responsibly. Some parents recognize that.

It was good enough for me

The Times discusses notes that an Internet forum for mothers who work from home posted a question about the age at which a child should get a cellular phone. One mother wrote: "I survived fine without a cellphone when I was a teenager."

That is an answer from an unenlightened mind. I survived without a cellular phone, too. I also survived without an MP3 player, a PDA, a portable computer and so many other electronic products that weren't available when I was growing up.

Just because I "survived" doesn't mean children should have to do without useful or fun products. Parents who tell their kids that they (the parents) did just fine without having something deserve the scorn of their kids.

Not a good answer

"I didn't have one" isn't the right reply. Parents need to give kids real reasons. If parents don't want to let their children have cellular phones/camera phones, they should tell them why.

And, when kids do get their first camera phone, it's up to the parents to teach their children how to use it responsibly.

Comments

[Mike]

I thought I had stumbled across a site about camera phones, not an industry propoganda site. First you condone the commercial preying on children, then follow up instructing parents that they have to answer up to their children why they won't raise them to be materialistic.

You mention all the wonderful things of owning a phone: games, camera, music, ringtones... still failed to touch on why a child might actually need a phone...

In other news:
Phillip Morris shows kids how smoking can increase your cool points with peers on the playground.

First Union Bank shows children how credit is the only thing standing between them and all the cool toys that the other kids have. Employment not necessary for these tike-loans.