Mobile phones have produces major changes in society in the last ten years

It is hard to believe that less than ten years ago mobile phones were a rare thing. For starters they were the size and weight of a large house brick with an aerial that could probably pick up television signals. Fortunately in the twenty first centaury mobile phones are tiny, so small that they can get lost down the back of the settee.

For teenagers mobile phones are a fashion accessory – funky covers, mobile phone holders etc. this however has given children something to bully others about. Have you got the latest model? Look he’s got the 3310 – that’s so out of date! If you don’t have the latest phones then forget it.

This naturally is cause of concern for parents, when they are presented with demands for phone cards from their spotty teenager. It raises the issue not only of at what age should pay the bills? Should children under the age of ten have mobile phones> the gut instinct is no, they are to young and irresponsible to look after such an expensive toy. But mobile phones offer a fantastic range of ways that parents can get in touch with their children. Surely this peace of mind is worth the immediately and avoid distress on both side.

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You can reach anywhere, any time. Although this is clearly not always a good thing, young people do not appear to mind, though even the most thick skinned individual squirms a little when their phone goes off in lesson or at the cinema. It can be irritating for others.

Mobile phones offer the fantastic opportunity for sending text messages. A short text message “C u l8r” can save a long tedious phone call. With the latest advances in technology it is now possible to access the internet on WAP mobile phones; this means you can check your emails or surd the web on the bus to school. Now you can also take pictures, record videos and listen to mp3’s.

This enables people to easily take their work home with them or stay in touch with people who may be hundreds of thousands of miles away. It also begs the question of what will be the next advance in mobile phones- television. DVD? Who knows? Whatever it is you can bet all of the teenagers in the school yard will be queuing up with their parent’s hard earned money to get one.

The problem occurs when children run out of credit on the mobile from sending so many texts or wasting many hours on the phone. Some parents choose to let their child go on contract and then they don’t have to worry about the time when the child runs out of money. They have to worry about the huge bill awaiting them at the end of the month.

Lately they have been introducing 3G mobiles where you can talk to another person through video, this is good as parents will be able to talk to their children through video. The disadvantages of 3G is the cost, it costs a lot to use this feature.

There are over 60 million people with mobile phones in this country, in Christmas 2004 54,000 mobile phones were brought to the country.