Researchers Urge Summer Cell Phone Safety

Consider that some 10.5 million of America's "tweeners" - children between the ages of eight and 12 - were estimated to have a cell phone by the end of 2006.

It's a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, parents can keep closer tabs on youngsters, and children can phone for help from remote locations. This can be especially handy during summer vacation.

But it also opens the door to abuse, including crank calls to 911. Just recently, a 14-year-old in Salt Lake City, Utah, was arrested after making 1,500 bogus 911 calls from his cell phone.

The authors of two recent studies on cell phone service offer a few tips to parents on how to educate their children about cell phone safety.

"Children need to be taught that the cell phone is a tool, not a toy," David Aylward, director and founder of COMCARE Emergency Response Alliance, said in a prepared statement.

For starters, dialing 911 on a cell phone has an important extra step that makes it different from calling at home: Push the "send" or "call" button on the keypad.

Practice this with the cell phone turned off.

Children should also be aware of the consequences of calling for help. "Emergency" means a threat to body or life or, in simpler terms, "afraid you're going to get hurt." Making this call means that a police officer, firefighter or ambulance will show up.

Once the call is placed, children should stay on the line and give the best description possible of their location.

Secondly, pre-program the child's cell phone with all important phone numbers and precede them with ICE, for "in case of emergency;" for example, ICE Daddy Cell, or ICE Home.

The phone is useless if it's turned off, so make it a rule to keep the phone on when leaving the house. Buy a spare charger for the child to keep in a backpack to avoid the "dead battery" excuse.

Aylward and Sullivan believe that teaching cell phone responsibility at an early age will reduce the likelihood of prank 911 calls.

Using a prepaid phone also helps. Instead of using a service provider's plan, researchers suggest an inexpensive phone with an allotted allowance of minutes. This teaches children to budget their time, according to the study.

"...The low-cost prepaid phone has made it possible for parents to extend to their children the same kind of 'safety blanket' they rely on in emergency situations," said Nicholas P. Sullivan, a study author.