write an article on the topic" mobile games : friend or foe "
Answers
About 90% of secondary school children and one in four seven- to 10-year-olds now own a mobile phone, so any argument over their virtues is academic: mobiles are must-haves for youngsters, despite the bad press they attract.
Besides the health risks of persistent mobile use, they have been linked with bad behaviour in schools, and with crime, as children are mugged for their uber-trendy handsets.
And the Professional Association of Teachers is so concerned about the rise of so-called "happy slapping", in which gangs of youngsters use video phones to record an assault on a fellow pupil, that they have called for the phrase to be banned and urged parents not to buy their children video-equipped mobiles.
Bullying by text, in which pupils are sent intimidating or threatening messages, is another unwelcome trend thought to have affected 14% of children, according to charity NCH. The tide of evils seems overwhelming. Which is a pity, because mobiles also have under-exploited potential as a powerful teaching/learning aid.
The eVIVA project, run by Ultralab, was acclaimed for its use of mobile phone and web technology to enable students to compile a portfolio of their work in ICT. Other projects have used learning games delivered by mobile to revive an interest in studying in youngsters who had turned their backs on education.
And, in Japan, the market for ebooks is expanding by 80% annually, partly because young people love reading novels on their mobiles.
If you are desperate to curtail your child's mobile use, try replacing their sophisticated 50-function model with the Vodafone Simple, whose functions are limited to calls and text messages. It does not even feature the Snake game.
Worst of all it's targeted at the over-35s. Nobody of school age will want to use it in public.