Technology and Children: UK Study Examines the Risks

Advances in technology provide new and exciting opportunities for users all around the world. Yet recent research examines the possible dangers on children's mental development when they involve themselves with certain wireless technologies, according to a new project that launched Tuesday.

"Scientists remain uncertain as to whether children's developing brains are more vulnerable than adults' brains, due to their developing nervous system, enhanced absorption of energy in head tissue, and increased cumulative exposure over their lifetime," noted the researchers, via CBS News.

Titled the Study of Cognition, Adolescents and Mobile Phones (SCAMP), researchers from Imperial College London examined the mental health of close to 2,500 children between the ages of 11 and 12 years old for a three-year-period. Over 160 secondary schools throughout the outer London area were also invited to be involved in the study

"The advice to parents is based on the precautionary principle given in absence of available evidence and not because we have evidence of any harmful effects," said lead investigator Dr. Mireille Toledano, via BBC News. "As mobile phones are a new and widespread technology central to our lives, carrying out the study is important in order to provide the evidence base with which to inform policy and through which parents and their children can make informed life choices."

Statistics show that an estimated 70 percent of all 11- to 12-year-olds in Britain now own a mobile phone, and that number is rising to almost 90 percent of those 14 and up, according to researchers.

"Taking part in SCAMP is a fantastic opportunity for schools to bring 'live' science into their classrooms, show children how we conduct health research and, above all, for schools, pupils and parents to make a real contribution to the health of current and future generations," Toledano concluded, via WebMD.