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Ha Thi Lan Anh
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Children And Technology - Exploding The Myths
April 7, 2003 - 11:56 AM
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SOURCE: http://www.etsi.org/pressroom/Previous/2003/STF201.htm
NEWS RELEASE
CHILDREN AND TECHNOLOGY - EXPLODING THE MYTHS
Sophia-Antipolis, France - 31 March 2003
'Being a child today is an entirely different proposition compared with the past. Technology is changing childhood and the nature of growing up.'
This was one of the messages delivered by Per Helmersen, Senior Research Psychologist at Telenor Research and Development in Norway and leader of a team of experts in the European Telecommunications Standards Institute's (ETSI's) Specialist Task Force (STF) 201, speaking at a major conference on 'Accessibility for All'. He said that the introduction of new Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) presents many challenges for users of all ages, and children are not 'masters of technology' as many parents assume, despite their apparent ability to understand the latest electronic products and services and how they work.
The conference, which was held in Nice, France, from 27-28 March, helps mark 2003 as the European Year of People with Disabilities. The event examined how the establishment of standards can help to widen access to a variety of modern products, services and environments for all - for young, old and people with disabilities or special needs. The conference was organized by the three European Standardization Organizations (ESOs) - the European Committee for Standardization (CEN), the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) and ETSI.
Mr Helmersen was reporting the findings of STF 201, which was set up by ETSI and funded under the eEurope initiative* to uncover some of the myths associated with children and their use of ICT. STF 201 studied the accessibility of mobile telephones and services and general Internet access by children up to the age of 12.
Children are becoming an increasingly significant consumer group for advanced computing and communications services: an estimated 65 million children between the ages of 2 and 17 have access to the Internet at home in Europe and the US, and 25% of 5-16 year olds in the UK have personal mobile telephones.
However, children are generally overlooked when considering ICT accessibility requirements and are expected to use equipment designed for adults. This may result in problems such as an inability to access services, service abuse, on-line vulnerability to exploitation, failures in growth of relevant cognitive skills and physical harm from prolonged use of systems with inappropriate or inadequate physical terminal design. These problems are exacerbated by the fact that electronic media are extending their influence throughout children's lives, affecting not just their leisure but also their education, their future employment prospects, and even their ability to interact with family and friends.
Mr Helmersen said:
'It is assumed that childhood is a temporary impairment that will vanish as the body and mind mature, and that special attention to the requirements of children is wasted effort. Accessibility for All thereby becomes Accessibility for Adults. Alternatively, it is assumed that children are 'Masters of Technology' who are far superior to adults and have an inexplicable, innate ability to understand the workings of ICT and put it to constructive use.'
The work of STF 201 has disproved both of these theories. The team's findings are being published as an ETSI Technical Report, Access to ICT by young people: Issues and guidelines, which identifies what needs to be done to improve access by children, and makes a number of recommendations.
The report recognizes the importance of standardization to ensure that a common approach can be adopted by network providers and equipment manufacturers. The STF's recommendations include further work to analyze the needs of children as ICT users, the production of guidelines for designers, service developers and standardization bodies, and the establishment of regulatory measures to control on-line marketing which targets children. Studies of ICT use among children should be encouraged and promoted to identify the social, physical and cognitive impacts of modern technologies on child development, and guidelines should be developed for the connection of various assistive devices to mobile terminals to meet the specific physical needs of children.
ETSI's Technical Committee Human Factors, which has overseen the work of STF 201, has made the formulation of guidelines for children's access to ICT one of its top priorities for future work.
[End]
NOTES TO EDITORS
About ETSI
ETSI - the European Telecommunications Standards Institute - is officially responsible for standardization in telecommunications, broadcasting and certain aspects of information technology within Europe. It produces a wide range of standards and other technical documentation as Europe's contribution to world-wide standardization. A non-profit making organization based in Sophia Antipolis, France, ETSI unites nearly 800 members from more than 56 countries inside and outside Europe, and brings together manufacturers, network operators, administrations, service providers, research bodies and users - in fact, all the key players in the telecommunications arena. For more information: http://www.etsi.org/
About the European Commission's eEurope Initiative
eEurope 2002 - An Information Society For All - was launched in 2000 to ensure that the whole of Europe reaps the benefits of the Information Society; it is a key element in the strategy for modernizing the European economy and aims to bring everyone in Europe - every citizen, every school and every company - on-line as quickly as possible. Building on the success of eEurope 2002, in June 2002, an Action Plan for eEurope 2005 was launched. Its objective is to provide a favourable environment for private investment and for the creation of new services and new jobs, to boost productivity, to modernize public services and to give everyone the opportunity to participate in the global information society. For more information: www.eeurope-standards.org/
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