[Air-l] Harm and Offense caused by mobile phones

David Brake d.r.brake at lse.ac.uk
Sat May 28 04:24:09 PDT 2005


Can anyone direct me to academic research on mobile phones and

1) the harm they do through (for example) enabling/encouraging bullying  
via text message, "happy slapping" (see  
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4539913.stm) or
2) The offense they might cause by allowing kids to see pornographic  
content or enabling gambling etc, or through the invasion of privacy of  
others using cameras in the phones ('upskirt pictures' etc)?

For the purposes of my research I am not interested in the (real or  
supposed) direct effects of mobile phone radiation or phone masts on  
health.

I have had no luck in browsing through this huge and otherwise  
interesting mobile phone research bibliography:  
http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~nalinik/mobile.html or searching the Web  
of Science for "mobile" and "harm/risk/danger/bullying/abuse/hazard"  
nor did I find anything with Scopus.

There may be stuff buried in various 'general' books about mobile  
phones and their significance but I am reluctant to try to skim all of  
them unless someone can recommend a specific likely text as the ones I  
have seen have little to say on this particular aspect.

All I have found so far is:

Charlton, T., C. Panting and A. Hannan (2002) "Mobile Telephone  
Ownership and Usage among 10- and 11-Year-Olds: Participation and  
Exclusion", Emotional Behavioural Difficulties, 7 (3), pp. 152-163  
which found in a small (N=157) survey of kids in a school that  11%  
admitted to receiving either a rude message (4%) or a threat (7%)  
[included rude jokes and racist comments]. Furthermore, 17% had been  
sent a frightening message, and 14% admitted to sending one.

and:

Palmer, T. and L. Stacey (2004) Just One Click: Sexual Abuse of  
Children and Young People through the Internet and Mobile Telephone  
Technology, Barnardo's, Ilford.

(which is mainly case studies and policy recommendations)

Any help would be much appreciated...

---
David Brake, Doctoral Student in Media and Communications, London  
School of Economics & Political Science
<http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/study/ 
mPhilPhDMediaAndCommunications.htm>
Also see http://davidbrake.org/ (home page), http://blog.org/ (personal  
weblog) and http://get.to/lseblog (academic groupblog)
Author of Dealing With E-Mail -  
<http://davidbrake.org/dealingwithemail/>
callto://DavidBrake (Skype.com's Instant Messenger and net phone)



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