We have all heard about the dangers of using a cell phone while driving a car. Some metropolitan areas have made it illegal to talk on a cell phone while driving because of the many related accidents. Last week I wrote a blog on the dangers of brain tumors associated with cell phone use. Researchers are concerned about the long-term effects on developing children’s brains if adults are showing tumors within 10 years of cell phone use. Now we have another warning for our children regarding cell phone usage. Researchers have found that children may not be able to cross the street safely while talking on a cell phone. Those of us parents who have witnessed our teenagers immersed in what appears to be the latest life or death scenario could have told them that without spending thousands of dollars on a research study.
The National Conference on Child Health Psychology, hosted by the University of Miami, will release their findings on Friday about the dangers of children crossing the streets while talking on their cell phones. They suggest that we educate our children about the dangers of cell phone usage while crossing the street. If you have teenagers, then you know how effective parental warnings can be. I’ve spotted my teenagers driving while talking on their cell phone with the radio blaring. Both being dangerously distracting for young drivers of which they have been warned.
One-third of children age 10 to 12 own a cell phone according to a study done at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Wow, this statistic was surprising for me. We didn’t provide our children with their own cell phones until they were able to pay the bill themselves. That was usually around the age of 16 when they got their driver’s license. The research determined that unintentional pedestrian injury is the leading cause of death in middle childhood. They also informed us that crossing the street involves complex brain processes. Another interesting tidbit was that family income has no bearing on cell phone ownership.
One of our older adopted daughters had trouble paying attention long enough to cross a street without a cell phone. Honestly, I worried constantly that she wouldn’t make it to 18 even though she was an intelligent girl. Two of our older adopted children seemed much more distracted while learning to drive then our three birth children. So far, two of our older adopted children had to practice driving until they were 17 to gain the skills necessary to pass the driving road test required in Michigan. One had attention deficit disorder, but the other did not. Their preoccupation may have resulted from the trauma suffered by them before entering foster care. It would be interesting when conducting studies like this if they would use an additional group of children who had suffered childhood trauma to see if their results differed from other groups of children.
An interesting note about the author of the study is included.
The key author of this study, Kayla Fanaei, was shot dead on Oct. 8, 2007, as she pulled into an elementary school parking lot to avoid conducting a cell phone conversation while driving. The lab of David C. Schwebel, which conducted both studies, finished her work.
Are the Cell Phones Hurting Our Teenagers Instead of Protecting Them?
Photo Credit Julia Fuller 2007