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!
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1 Robert (French visitor) Jan 1st, 2007 at 10:39 pmThere is a relationship between tools and crime. For example, countries with liberal access to guns have a much higher murder rate. One can of course kill someone in many ways, but guns are easier than other ways, and consequently lead to a higher murder rate.
Many people will deny this. The gun lobby in the USA denies it, with as much success as the tobacco companies denied that tobacco caused cancer. However, the science on this matter is conclusive.
That being said, the issue is between individual freedom and public safety. At what level should guns be banned: all guns; all guns excepting licensed hunting guns; only automatic guns banned? It is not an easy question and different societies have taken different positions.
Similarly for video phones. I’m sure that there are instances where people commit crimes for the kick of taping them, where if easy means of recording them were not available the crimes would not be committed. The question is where to draw the line. One has to consider how much ordinary individuals will be deprived on a daily basis, versus the relatively rare but truely terrible additional tragedies such as your post mentions.
If this was a one-off, then I would say individual liberity needs to take precedence. However, if there are multiple instances, a ban may well be appropriate. I don’t have enough information on the extent to which video phones are promoting crime. Perhaps someone else does and can share this information?