Instructions
Preparation
How old were you when you got a mobile? Everybody knows that teenagers love their phones. Here are some mobile phone facts.
- Two-thirds of 12-15-year-olds in the UK have a smartphone.
- People in the UK send 50 text messages a week on average.
- British 12-15-year-olds send an average of 200 messages a week.
- British girls aged between 12 and 15 text more than boys of the same age group. Girls send 221 messages a week!
Parents
Parents want their kids to be safe. Are teenagers safer with a mobile phone or without? Many parents want their children to have a phone so that they can be in contact at any time or in any place. On the other hand, for lots of parents a phone is a source of possible danger. Parents worry that their child may meet the wrong kind of ‘friends’ on social networking sites or that they might receive cruel messages from school bullies. Some parents have rules about their children’s mobile phone and internet usage and bad behaviour can result in removal of mobile privileges.
The great thing about my kids having mobile phones is that I can keep in touch with them. The worst thing about teenagers having phones is that some young people use them to send offensive messages to each other.
William, from Coventry. William is a parent of two teenagers.
A teenager feels lost without a phone. If my daughters behave badly, I confiscate their phones and their behaviour quickly improves.
Kiera, mother of 15-year-old twins.
School
Mobile phones are permitted at school in the UK but pupils are not allowed to use them in class and they must be on silent during lessons. Teachers can take away phones if these rules are broken. School students can use their phones at break time and at lunchtime. Some teachers in British schools complain that pupils don’t always follow the rules and that lessons are disrupted by people texting, making and receiving calls, looking at social networking sites, watching videos and even making videos in the class.
My mum is scared that I’m going to lose my phone or that someone is going to steal it. She won’t buy me the really cool phone that I want. I’ve got this rubbish one that doesn’t do much. I suppose that makes sense but it’s not fair that everyone else has a smartphone and I don’t.
Tam, 14, from Wrexham.
I know that some people want mobiles to be banned at school but as a language teacher I find that phones can be pretty useful in class ... for educational purposes of course. For example, the students write a dialogue in French, they record it on a phone, then they listen to the recording and try to correct any mistakes or improve pronunciation. They love it!
Stan, from Chester. Stan is a French teacher.
Messaging
A mobile phone contract in the UK usually comes with a number of text messages included in the price. Of course lots of people send messages completely free of charge using an app that’s also free to download. If you want to send text messages in English you need to know some abbreviations. Here are some to get you started:
LOL = laugh out loud
POS = parent over shoulder
BRB = be right back
TYVM = thank you very much
BCNU = be seeing you (meaning ‘goodbye’)
ASAP = as soon as possible
OIC = oh I see (means ‘I understand’)
TTFN = Ta ta for now (means ‘goodbye')
BFFL = best friends for life
TYVM 4 reading this article. BCNU!
Worksheets and downloads
Discussion
Some parents confiscate their teenager's phone as a punishment for poor behaviour. Is that a good idea? What's your opinion?
Comments
Taking away a teenager´s phone as punishment is a bad idea. You will not be able to reach them and they´ll probably even behave worse and get pretty mad. Just don´t let them hang out with their friends and they hopefully will realise the consequences of behave badly.
I think that taking your childs phone is a very good and effective way of punishing your child. If they have done something wrong or maybe they are using their phone too much I think that is one way of punishing your child that would work very well. I mean personally I would be horrified if my parents took my phone away but I can´t deny that it wouldn’t work.
I think that it's not a very good idea to remove teenagers mobile phones as a form of punishment because it makes the teenagers that doesn't think that their lives depend on their mobile phones think that they need the phone because it serves as a punishment to remove their phones.
I think the mobile phone is a good idea, but some things are bad. One good thing is that you can contact - for example, your parents if you're far away from home and need help. A bad thing is that you can receive or write mean messages to people.
I think that it's kinda bad idea, confiscate a teenagers phone doesn't "give them a lesson". Confiscate just almost always ending up in the same place as it started. If you take their phone they wil just be extra friendly until they get their phone back and then it will just hapen again, and so over and over and over. Thats why you should make a strange punish directly so they don't do it again. TTFN and BCNU
I think it’s a good idea. It’s a good because if the person have done something wrong it maybe teaches the person not to do it again.
I think it´s a good idea because then the children don´t use the phones very much anymore. And when they are getting their phones back, I think that the parents have to make a rule that their children have a limited time with the phones every week or every day.
I think that it's both good and bad to take you childs phone. Its good because the child can think about something else like homework. I also think that's it bad because the child doesn't really learn anything from it.
I don't think it's a good idea. If you take your children's phones, you won't be able to contact them. And I really don't think that's a good way to make the learn a lesson.
I think it's a bad idea because it feels like if you take away their phones they will only behave bad because they can't chat with their friends and they will probably become sad and i don't think parents really would do so well without phones because they often play games and also chat with their friends and family.
I think it's a good idea. For a teenager mobile phone is everything. I know that because I'm a teenager and I can't live without mine.
I don't think mobile phone is good at teenager...
Mobile telophone ITs very very bad.
No, its very bad idea
I think the Internet is more important for teenagers.
Yes, its good idea )
I think it is not good idea,YES, not good idea.
I think it is a good idea.
PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE,PHONE, tHIS IS OUR LIFE My mom and my dad say me : In our childhood no exicst phone :) :)
I don't think that confiscating your child's phone just because he/she did something stupid is a good idea. Instead of taking the phone, parents should teach their child how to use it properly. There are lots more punishments that are alot better. An example would be, clean the house (can be anything to clean) or make them have limited access to the phone. Instead of watching it 5 hours a day let them have it 1. If you just take it for lets say, a week. After that week has past, and they get the phone back everything will turn to normal again and the teenager haven't really learnt anything.
I think it´s a really good thing to do when your teenager is exasperating beacuse after a long time know they what´s happens if they are exasperating and that will make them stop.
I think that it is a good idea to take I think that it is a good idea to take their phones from them as a punishment. because they do not like that and they will be more careful an behave good their phones from them as a punishment.
For some reason this question doesn't have a clear answer and it really depends of your personality, intrests or behavior.
Some people have a smartphone but they ar not obsessed with it and confisticating it as a punishment doesn't make sense, nothing happens, it probably will make everything worse.
But those who are haunted with their phones and have a poor behavior, removing a phone is a quite good idea.
My parents taught me that every mistake or bad behavior gives you a lesson, you always are going to learn something useful, if you don't have any punishment perhaps it will be harder to remember or correct your mistakes.
I think that teenagers need a phone so that they can call people when they are in trouble.
But a phone can be trouble too if not used carefully.
I think that parents that takes their childrens phone is doing right and wrong. It totally depends on the childrens interest, for example if a children like their computer more than their phone it´s better to forbid they to play computer games instead of taking their phone, they wouldn't care if their phone was taken away if they still could play computer. But if a children uses their phone very much they might care alot more at once so they wouldn't lose it again.
I don't think confiscating a teenagers mobile will solve the problem. Maybe it will solve the problem for the moment but when the teenagers receive their mobilephone again they will probably start with the bad behaviour. So i think it's a bad idea. You can solve it much easier if you make a very serious conversation with your teenager about what will happen in the future, and maybe after that they will understand.
I don't think thats the smoothest way to solve the problem. I mean if you take their phones, but they can still go out and hang out with their friends, you're not going to be able to contact them.
And wasn't that the main purpose of buying the children phones in the first place?
When some people behave bad, they often feel sad after. Maybe they have friends far away that means a lot for them and if they don't have a phone that they can't contact them with they can become depressed.
Without a phone, when you are used to it, you're going to feel very lost. You can't call anyone either if something happening.
That's why I think parents shouldn't confiscate their teenagers phones.
I think it´s both a good and a bad ìdea. It can be good sometimes, so they know that they did wrong. But the problem isn't solved and you can't take it away for ever. Because they need ther mobile sooner or later, to make a call or something else.
Well I think that parents that take their children´s mobile phone does wrong. I think like that because it's not a good enough punishment. Instead of taking their phone they could've do something else that would be better. But the punishment does often has to do with the childs interests. Because if it is a football nerd that lost his phone it wouldn't matter, but if he lost his ball he would cry to get it back.
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