Kids' phones: The downside

Cellphones in children's hands are not always a lifeline, the Detroit Free Press points out. "Law enforcement agencies have only anecdotal evidence right now that cell phones can pose a threat to young people. The issue is so new that police haven't even begun to compile data connecting cell phone use to crimes. And even if they did, they say, the numbers likely would not reflect an accurate picture because many of the unsavory situations young people could get into with a cell phone aren't crimes." For example, a case in which parents found nude photos of their daughters (13 and 14) on the girls' camera phones and then learned they had "used the phones to send the pictures to a stranger in California whom they'd met online." The stranger turned out to be a 16-year-old in California who'd shared the photos with his friends. But the article led with the case of a 15-year-old girl whose phone had turned out to be "a lethal tool for a man with a criminal history." These are extreme cases, but because of them, one Detroit-area police officer specializing in Internet crime told the Free Press he doesn't think kids need cellphones.