Caps on cell phone use for kids mulled
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Legislation should prohibit children younger than 12 years old from using mobile phones to ward off the influence of pornography on mobile WAP sites, experts said.
Authorities could learn from foreign experience as a number of countries have restricted mobile phone use for children under 12, Yang Weiping, professor of Shaanxi Normal University and a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Shaanxi provincial committee, was quoted by www.chinanews.com.cn on Tuesday as saying.
The suggestion came after China launched a string of crackdowns on pornographic and lewd content on the Internet since last year. More than 15,000 pornographic websites, including more than 11,000 mobile WAP sites, were shut down or blocked last year. On Dec 8, the country launched a new round of crackdowns on pornographic content spread through Internet or mobile WAP sites.
With the country's expanding 3G mobile network, 233 million Internet users, or 60.8 percent of China's total 384 million netizens, used mobile Internet applications as of last December, according to the China Internet Network Information Center. Among the 233 million mobile network users, 73.2 percent were aged 10 to 29.
France will introduce a law cracking down on children's use of mobile phones amid growing fears that the radiation of mobile phone usage may cause cancer and other diseases. Nine years ago, the United Kingdom recommended that people aged under 16 be discouraged from using mobiles. The Russian government also announced that young people under 18 should not use the devices, reported London-based newspaper The Independent this month.
