NEW YORK — When Amy Morris’ twin boys, then 11, went on an academic trip to Washington last year, she agreed to give them cell phones at the program’s request. But this summer she was dismayed to learn that girls at her 8-year-old daughter’s day camp were using cell phones they’d taken along in their backpacks.
“We were outraged,” said the Connecticut mother. “These girls think it’s a cute game. But it’s inappropriate, and it’s unnecessary.”
It’s a signature parenting dilemma of the wireless age: Should kids have cell phones? And how old is old enough? It pits our understandable desire to keep tabs on our offspring — not to mention make them happy — against the instinctive feeling that it’s simply, well, wrong for youngsters to spend their time chatting and texting over the airwaves.
Now, there’s further ammunition for Morris and other reluctant parents like her to stand firm: The warning last week by the head of a prominent cancer research institute to his faculty and staff. Limit cell phone use, he said, because of the possible cancer risk — especially when it comes to children, whose brains are still developing.
The warning from Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, was based on early, unpublished data and came despite numerous studies that haven’t found a link between increased tumors and cell phone use. But it’s struck a nerve among parents who already have other reasons to resist their children’s entreaties.
“It’s part of this whole rush to adulthood,” said Marybeth Hicks, an author, columnist and mother of four. “Hello Kitty backpacks for third-graders have cell phone pockets in them.”
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