Control children’s use of cell phones

By PISAI GUMAR
PARENTS must control the use of mobile phones by young children, a National Court judge says.
Dismissing a rape allegation against a minor, Justice Catherine Davani said allowing children to use mobile phones was destroying their mental aptitude and their vocabulary.
She said that impeded their education in dismissing a rape case involving two primary school aged students from the north coast area of Madang.The boy and the girl used mobile phones to communicate and set a location to meet and have sexual intercourse.The court said the state prosecutor was unable to substantiate evidence for a packet of condoms found at the site of the sexual encounter as well as the medical report, resulting in case being dismissed.“Parents do not know the types and kind of words their children used in communicating during boy-girl relationships,” Justice Davani said. “Some of these words are very rude and bad. “The spelling of words used in communicating is not in accordance with its required standard; otherwise in short abbreviated forms and phrases that destroy the standardised spelling as well as grammatical structures and semantics or meanings,” she said.Davani said the responsible authorities and, in particular, parents need to control the use of mobiles among young children as the courts were already experiencing and dealing with more underage sexual intercourse cases, where mobile phones were used to set up meetings. “At this juncture, the rate of children using mobile phones is at an alarming stage and if we are not mindful, our community and society will be severely affected and destroyed in the near future,” she said.“School age children use mobile phones to access internet to download unethical images that affects their mental aptitude and disturb their thoughts and focus in studies.”