USA Today: The ban follows the alleged sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl by four male students at a school on the island of Evia in October, and the alleged videotaping of the incident on a cellphone of a fellow student.

Back in the day when I was in high-school, I remember the first wave of affordable ‘brick’ cellphones hitting the market and shortly after the more affluent kids started bringing them to school. It was not long before they were banned at our school, but for very different reasons — the incessant looping of Nokia ring tones and the real threat of theft were the reasons given back then.

Times have certainly changed since then and it’s not just the affluent kids who are in possession of cellphones for one, yet they are increasingly being banned in public places. What I find interesting is that as technology improves and ICTs become more affordable to the masses, so too do the myriad social problems and calls for the authorities to lock it down.

In South Africa, like in most countries with a high penetration of mobile devices, this has become a contentious issue, especially amongst parents and educators of teens. I gave my thoughts on this matter in my MXit post and one broadcaster often airs footage of ‘violence’ and ‘delinquency’ captured by amateurs on cellphones during their 7pm news broadcast. Vincent also touched on this in his post about a cellphone video clip that he found on our university network which featured a group of unidentifiable youths killing a Dassie.

The crux of the matter is this. Rape is wrong, violence is wrong, animal abuse is wrong etc. etc. The questions that we really need to ask ourselves are would the perpetrators have still committed the offences had there not been a cellphone present? Will banning them in schools and other areas really stop acts like this taking place in the future? What if invisible, nano-cameras are invented and made cheaply available? Does the problem really lie with the technology or does it simply underscore reality and societal degeneration?

I’d like to hear other peoples thoughts on this!