AMTA defends another assault on the cellphone industry

Stuart Corner
Monday, 19 February 2007 15:17

Opinion and Analysis

The Australia Institute has issued a research paper, accompanied by a media release, accusing the mobile phone industry of ramping up its marketing efforts to children, specifically the six to 13 year old age group.

The release quotes co-author, Christian Downie, saying: "This is another example of the pressures being put on young children to consume and to compete with their peers for expensive consumer goods from a young age. It is an ethos that is not only harmful to childhood development but, in the case of mobile phones, very costly. A leading Australian banker has labelled mobile phones 'a debt trap for our kids'."

Seems to me he is largely stating the obvious. Sure marketing to children in our society is way over the top. You see it everywhere all the time. Why single out the mobile phone industry?

In my view, the remarks would have been best left to pass without comment by the mobile industry. But no, the response from the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) was predictable and predictably swift - any news at all critical of its industry always provokes an immediate rejection.

This column has taken issue in the past with the rigour of AMTA's knee jerk responses to critical material. When a US study demonstrated that driving while on the phone increases the risk of accident to the same level as a blood alcohol level of 0.08, the legal limit in most US states, AMTA was swift to respond .

AMTA has done it again, rejecting the AI's claims saying "The overwhelming reason why parents buy mobile phones for their children is for safety and security reasons...An Australian Psychological Society study, which is quoted in the Australia Institute's study, found the main reason highlighted by both parents and adolescents for getting a mobile phone was for contact with parents and safety."