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Last week, the Pew Research Center found that half of American
teenagers- defined in the study as ages 12 through 17-send 50 or more text
messages a day and that one third send more than 100 a day. Two thirds of
the texters surveyed by the centers Internet and American Life Project said
they were more likely to use their cellphones to text friends than to meet
them in person. 54% said that they text their friends once a day, but only
33% said that they talk to their friends face-to-face on a daily basis. The
findings came just a few months after the Kaiser Family Foundation reported
that Americans between the ages of 8 and 18 spend an average 7 hours a
day using some sort of electronic device, from smart phones to MP3 players
to computers- a number that startled many adults, even those who keep
their BlackBerrys within arms reach during most waking hours.
Those who work with children see, are exchanges that are more
superficial and more public than in the past. When we were younger, we
would spend hours at a time meeting one person, says a commenter on
debate.org. Today instant messages are often group chats. And she said,
Facebook is not a conversation.
To some children, technology is merely a facilitator for an active social
life. On a recent Friday, Hannah Kliot, a 15-year-old ninth grader in
Manhattan, United States, who had, at last count 1150 Facebook friends,
sent a plethora of texts after school to make plans to meet some friends later
at a party. The next day she played in two softball games, texting between
innings and games, about plans to go to a concert the next weekend.
Mobile phones are designed to transmit radio waves (a form of nonionizing radiation) in order to find a signal and these waves move in a variety
of directions including towards the users head.

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The problem is that when this happens they are absorbed into the
bodys tissues, and this is why some studies have indicated they may
potentially increase the risk of brain cancer.
A 2008 study from the University Hospital in Orebro, Sweden, found
that children and teenagers were more likely to get brain cancer when they
use mobile phones.
The study, experts say, raises fears that todays young people may
suffer an epidemic of the disease in later life.
People who started mobile phone usage before the age of 20 had more than
five-fold increase in glioma. Says Professor Lennart Hardell- who led the
study.
Mark Giffiths, professor, Nottingham Trent University, said that the studies
suggest that anywhere between 1 and 3 percent of Internet users may have
a genuine addiction. But there are many who exhibit habitual behavior that
has become problematic.
Some teens worry that they are addicted to the internet-and rightly so.
An addiction is a compulsive need for something that is so strong that it can
cause negative physical and mental effects when deprived.
Nearly 45% of teens have been bullied online. Each time a teen or child
connects to the Web, they are increasing the chances of being bullied or
stalked. Once that occurs, the probability of being bullied, increases.
The internet is a dangerous thing. It has many things a child shouldnt
see, and many things a kid shouldnt know about. For instance, what if a
child was searching for information on a geometry project, stumbled upon a
random person and became friends? The person they met might be a serial
killer, or something worse.
A spokeswoman for JCA said: This research clearly demonstrates that
students up and down the country are spending more and more time using

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social media, rather than relying on life experiences and face to face
interaction with others, children are becoming obsessed with social
networking and this is shaping their attitudes instead.
So to sum it all up, smartphones and tablets are not beneficial for
childrens education. It makes them addicted and changes them through the
poisonous radio waves emitted from the mobile devices. It also does not help
them with anything. And most of all, there are cyber bullies everywhere, so
the Internet is very dangerous.