Ring Ring Ring! Raffi Says, Don’t Let Your Kids Become Cellular, Modular, Interactiveodular.
The Canadian launch of the brightly coloured Firefly phone, which costs as much as $149.99 and is being touted as a way for parents to keep in touch with “the people who matter most,” comes after a consumer advocacy group co-founded by Ralph Nader petitioned U.S. Congress to investigate the marketing and sale of cellphones to children.
The group, citing unanswered questions related to health, social and privacy impacts on children, said putting cellphones into the hands of such a young population could open up a “plethora of problems” with unknown long-term consequences — everything ranging from interruptions in learning environments to possible health problems affecting the ear and brain.
“Once the phones are in the classrooms, playrooms, and in the children’s bedrooms, it will be too late,” states a letter from Commercial Alert, whose board includes Nader, popular children’s singer Raffi, and Brita Butler-Wall, president of the Seattle School Board.
