Many adolescents own a smart device. The main advantage of this is being able to stay in contact with their parents, which is very important, and the main disadvantage is a lack of face to face communication, which has many detrimental effects.
The biggest benefit of teenagers having mobiles is the fact that their parents can call them and even check on their location. This is because smart phones have GPS and many apps allow parents to accurately determine where their child is. For example, messaging apps like Viber have a location setting, so that parents can ask where the child is in a message and then check on Google Maps when their loved one responds.
In my opinion, this is very useful because it prevents children in their teens from getting into trouble because their parents can keep tabs on them.
However, some believe that the drawback is that teens will spend too much time on their phones and this will reduce the amount of time they spend talking face to face. Face to face communication allows children to develop their social skills and grow as
human beings and they may become anti-social adults in the future if they are staring at a screen all day. For instance, it is very common to go to a coffee shop in my local area and see large groups of young people sitting around and not talking for several minutes because there are so engrossed in their smart phones. I agree that this will stunt their development and that usage of phones should be limited.
In conclusion, the primary value of teenagers having smart phones is the fact that they will be safer because their parents can locate them easily and the downside is a possible lack of social development.
