Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Cell phones are big business among youngsters

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 06 May 2003 22:18:45 -0400

May 06. 2003 6:01AM
Cell phones are big business among youngsters

The Associated Press

ONITA SPRINGS - Long before they
can get a driver's license, many
youngsters are clamoring for a
newer badge of status and freedom: a cell phone.

And, they're getting it, too. As prices have dropped, so has the age of many cell
phone owners, market researchers say.

In east Lee County, 12-year-old Adam Amburgey and his 13-year-old sister,
Samantha, got their first Nextel handsets last year as Christmas gifts.
Thirteen-year-old Amanda Cline of Bonita Springs is on her second cell phone.
She got her first Nokia at age 10.

Amanda can name at least 12 classmates who also have cell phones.

''It's more girls than boys. The boys are kind of irresponsible - they drop their cell
phones in the water,'' she said, giggling.

The 13- to 18-year-old members of the Young Sista's Book Club ''all have cell
phones,'' said Maleta Wilson McPherson, a Fort Myers bookstore owner and club
founder. ''It's making it hard for me with my 10-year-old.''

McPherson has told her daughter, Jasmine, she'll have to wait until high school.

That hard-line position may be getting less common.

A 2002 Yankee Group survey of cell phone-owning households found that 30
percent of those with children under 18 had bought handsets for at least one of
their offspring. On the likelihood that cell phone ownership is skewing ever
younger, this year's Yankee Group survey will inquire about usage by children as
young as 11.

Wireless providers are pushing the trend with liberal family plans, as well as
products and services geared toward the younger set. A Sprint PCS TV
commercial running this month shows two young teens fighting to answer the
same cell phone. The answer: more phones.

Last fall, AT&T Wireless taught a cell phone class geared to ages 9 to 12 at the
Boys and Girls Club of Collier County.

''The parents say it's for their child's security and their convenience. But the child
sees it as a way to stay in touch with their friends, by text as well as by voice,''
said Yankee Group analyst Linda Barrabee.

The young and the wireless also are using their handsets to download ring
tones, play games, keep daily planners and, on the most sophisticated models,
take photos. They're one of the hottest fashion accessories for girls in middle
school.

Amanda, for example, has seven decorative face plates. She doesn't re-dress
her phone daily, but admits to snapping on the pink face plate ''with raspberries
on it'' when she's wearing a pink outfit.

Amanda said she ''begged and pleaded for the phone'' after talking with
15-year-old friends who had cell phones. She didn't get much argument from her
mother, Eileen Cline.

''I got this for her safety and for my convenience,'' Cline said. For example, if they
get separated shopping at the mall, ''I can call her, and say 'Where are you?
Meet me at this entrance,' '' Cline said.

It also helps to know when her mother is tied up in traffic and will be late picking
her up from soccer, Amanda said.

At the Amburgey home, the cell phones came with strings attached: The
Riverdale Middle School siblings were presented user contracts drafted by their
parents.

Dropping grades, flashing the phone around friends and going beyond the
allotted minutes are all grounds for temporary forfeiture, said their mother,
Barbara Amburgey. So far, she's had to confiscate a phone only once.

Asked whether a cell phone really enhances child safety or parental guidance,
Ann Duffala was skeptical. She's a licensed school psychologist and mental
health counselor in Fort Myers.

''I don't think, particularly at the elementary school level, that it's necessary,''
Duffala said. As for teens: ''They are very good at circumventing parental
controls. . . . I wouldn't support it financially.''

Wireless providers are pushing the trend with products and services geared
toward youths.

http://www.gainesvillesun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Site=GS&Date=20030506&Category=BUSINESS&ArtNo=305050017&Ref=AR

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