A survey has found that 97% of parents think under 16s owning phones is acceptable.
The research was conducted by Netmums.com, an online parenting organisation with more than 1.4 million members.
When asked ‘At what age do you think it’s okay for a child to own a mobile?’ the survey showed 11.4% of respondents thought 14 to 16 years old was okay, 53.2% of respondents 12 to 14 years old was okay, 29.4% felt nine to 11 years old was okay, 2.7% said six to eight was okay and 0.3% said under five was okay.
Two thirds, or 67% of parents bought their children a mobile phone under the age of 16 and of these, just under half purchased a mobile for a child under 11.
The survey was commissioned by Pong, which makes radiation shielding and performance improving smart device covers. It was carried out with Netmums.co.uk over one month from November 2012 onwards and had 1900 responses, a spokeswoman for the company said.
When asked the questions ‘Which of the below issues do you think have been linked to radiation exposure from under 18s phone or wi-fi radiation exposure?’, more than 80% linked headaches with mobile phone radiation exposure, 50% with sleep deprivation and 48% with behavioural problems. There was no option for ‘None’.
The results highlighted parents’ confusion about mobile phone safety, Netmums founder Siobhan Freegard said.
Many parents provided children with a mobile for safety reasons, however the UK Chief Medical Officer advised children under 16 should only use mobile phones for essential purposes, and should keep all calls short, she said.
“As there is still conflicting evidence over whether mobile can harm children, parents need to balance their safety fears with concerns for their child’s health.“
Are mobile phones a health risk?
The debate about whether mobile phone radiation is harmful has been ongoing.
Mobile phones use radio, or electromagnetic waves, to operate, which was a form of non-ionising radiation, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) said.
The World Health Organisation said the electromagnetic fields produced by mobile phones had been classified in 2011 as possibly carcinogenic to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). This put it in the same category as coffee, the BBC reported.
The IARC found that evidence, while still accumulating, was strong enough to support the classification. Chairman of the working group that reached this conclusion Dr Jonathan Samet said this meant there could be some risk “and therefore we need to keep a close watch for a link between cell phones and cancer risk.”
As of 2011, the World Health Organization said a large number of studies had been performed over the last two decades to assess whether mobile phones posed a potential health risk.
“To date, no adverse health effects have been established as being caused by mobile phone use.”
Pong said independent studies had found that mobile phone use had been linked to adverse health effects in under 16s such as headaches and insomnia. These studies include the BioInitiative 2012 report which reviewed over 1800 scientific studies and found reinforced evidence of risk from chronic exposure to electro-magnetic fields and wireless technologies. The report quoted studies as saying children in particular were at risk from adverse health effects including cancer.
In 2000, the independent expert group on mobile phones, the Stewart Group, reviewed the possible effects of mobile telecommunications technologies. Chairman Sir William Stewart said the balance of evidence did not suggest that mobile phone technologies put the health of the general population of the United Kingdom at risk.
There is some preliminary evidence that outputs from mobile phone technologies may cause, in some cases, subtle biological effects although, importantly, these do not necessarily mean that health is affected
Sir Stewart proposed a precautionary approach be adopted until more robust scientific information became available and that widespread use of mobile phones for non-essential calls by children should be discourage, since if there were any unrecognised adverse health effects, children would be more vulnerable due to their developing nervous system, greater absorption of energy in head tissue and a longer lifetime of exposure.
The Government accepted this recommendation and this has not changed since that time.
The HPA said there were thousands of scientific papers covering research about the effects of various typs of radio waves on people.
“The scientific consensus is that, apart from the increased risk of a road accident due to mobile phone use when driving, there is no clear evidence of adverse health effects from the use of mobile phones or from phone masts”
In April 2012, the HPA’s independent Advisory Group concluded there was still no convincing evidence that mobile phone technologies caused adverse effects on human health.
HPA Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards director Dr John Cooper said since it was a relatively new technology however, the HPA would continue to advise a precautionary approach and to keep the science under close review.
“The HPA recommends that excessive use of mobile phones by children should be discouraged and mobile phone Specific Energy Absorption Rates (SAR) values should be clearly marked in the phone sales literature.”
