British children surveyed: "poor children don't have mobile phones"
Researchers in England recently polled children about their views on poverty, and in their eyes, what signs indicated that another child was poor. The children ages ranged from seven to sixteen, and surprisingly one in five kids reported that not having a mobile phone was a sign that other children were poor -- the highest response among all the indicators. The study was used to demonstrate that school-age children are paying close attention to the most obvious signs of wealth among their peers, while ignoring the more damaging indicators like being unable to pay for food or being without a safe place to go after school. We're not even sure a six year old should know what a cellphone is let alone make snap judgments about a person's wealth based on it, but if you think age six is too young for British kids to have mobile phones, another country has them beat.
[Via textually.org and SMS Text News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ksat @ Sep 26th 2007 1:25PM
"We're not even sure a six year old should know what a cellphone is let alone make snap judgments about a person's wealth based on it"
I don't agree that a six year old shouldn't know what a cellphone is... Cell phones are part of today's culture, everyone has them! And, I guess, in the UK, even a 6yr old has one. But, it should NOT be used as the basis of judgement - that is for sure! My 7 yr old daughter knows what a cell phone is...why? Because her mom and dad use them quite a bit. Hell, she even knows how to text someone and play games on it. Is it bad? No - it's part of the culture in which our children are growing up.
elgee02 @ Sep 26th 2007 1:44PM
Wow this makes me feel old. When I was in HS (and it was a a typical middle class HS too, not poor nor very rich) I'd say less than 10% of the students owned a cell phone. Now beepers on the other hand...
glucoseboy @ Sep 26th 2007 4:31PM
Just how old do you feel? When I was in high school (nice middle class) no one had cell phones. Damm, I feel old. Thanks a lot man!!!
newgalactic @ Sep 26th 2007 2:07PM
That's so horrible. In my day, we were happy to have air in our lungs and food on our table. And when we judged people, it was over important things, ...like sneakers. And boy oh boy, I'm glad that this is a problem over there in the UK, and not an issue here in the US of A.
Get Off My Damn Lawn!!!
adrian @ Sep 26th 2007 9:10PM
You can buy a pre paid Mobile for as low as ten pounds in some parts of the UK, So it's understandable why children think that way, Almost everyone has one. To be quite honest children should not be allowed to own mobiles anyway.