This House believes that children should be allowed to own and use smart phones.

To con, I just realized ,you didn't go into details about your points, so I can't rebut your arguments. And I don' think I'll do it Round 4, so I'll just express my opinions about the disadvantaged of having a smart phone that Con has presented later on in round 3. I'll also fortify my arguments by providing more solid proofs. I'm going to begin my round 3 with citations for round 2. Here are the links of website that I referred to; http://en.wikipedia.org...'s_rights en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child http://www.phonearena.com... http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk... http://en.wikipedia.org... http://www.edupad.com... http://edition.cnn.com... http://www.salary.com... I'd like to continue my debate with proofs that support my claims. As I did mention in round 2, a smartphone is highly beneficial for children in term of their intellectual development. A proof that undergird such statement is that smartphones feature an added dimension of learning. According to PBS Parents Guide to Children & Media, giving a smartphone to a school-aged children will provide them an additional way of learning, apart from traditional books or classroom. It has been known to us that learning process that involves more stimuli will help one to study better as this method will enhance better memory. There are many educational apps that are downloadable on App Store and Play Store such as Brilliant, Duolingo and Amazing Science Fact that utilize multi stimuli as basics for its educational program. Also, they can gain access to philosophy and literature materials in a faster and more convenient way. Therefore I believe this modern way of learning is better than the traditional method, that only depends on black and white sources, which will lead to better intellectual development in children especially students. For my second claim, let us do mathematics! I mentioned that "A smart phone is an amalgamation of many other electronic devices such as a computer, a phone, an MP3, calculator, stopwatch, clock and gaming platform ". Let's take the price of an iPad and a Samsung Note 10 for instance to compare with the total price of these electronic devices. An iPad costs $399.00 and a Samsung Note 10 worths R06;$359.99. A computer, an MP3, a calculator, a stopwatch, clock, a gaming platform (let that be a gameboy since there are emulators for it) $579.99.+$40+$30+$20+$32.11+...... which sums up to at least $690.00. I should mention that these numbers are just my estimation and there are a lot more devices that I didn't put into account such as e-Book.Now from a rough look and my estimation, you will agree that buying a smartphone is indeed more economical than having to buy all of these electronic devices. And for my last point, do I need to provide proofs on how important it is to nurture and let your children to explore technology? "We"re seeing a fundamental change in the way kids consume media," Jim Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, said in an interview with Mashable. "Kids that can"t even talk will walk up to a TV screen and try to swipe it like an iPad or an iPhone."So, by the time they reach elementary school, children are exposed to a myriad of technologies like smart boards and sophisticated computer programs! Now it's time for my rebuttal. The 3 points that were put forward by my opponent were; 1. Health and Safety Issues, 2. Distraction from both others and school, and 3. Too much time spent on the phone. Okay, first health and safety issues. You have to link me a LEGIT scientific report or a summary to it regarding health issues caused by using a smartphone. [Please note: not OVERUSING]. So far, the several ( almost a dozen ) websites, that I did spend some time giving them a thorough reading, only mentioned something like this " EATING CANDIES WILL GIVE YOU DIABETES " or " WALKING IS BAD FOR YOU! " Everything is dangerous if you do something excessively! Now, here are the top 5 popular health issues related to having a smartphone claimed by most of these websites; 1. Germs 2. Creativity 3. Disconnect 4. Texting and Driving 5. Job Stress I am a very sceptical person and I don't think anyone has ever had a fever or caught a cold from a phone. Germs are everywhere and our body is adopted by having antibodies that can fight off typical bad micro-organisms! Secondly I believe technology promotes creativity! With more painting apps and better camera we can capture an a momentarily art that is almost as good as one that is crafted via conventional devices such as a DSLR or a computer! Next, I think it is pretty common sense not to use a phone while driving as it will distract us. And lastly job stress. I can't relate it to owning a smart phone. If you don't want to have an update about your work, just turn off the mobile data! I would like to stress again that smart phones are relatively harmless if you have a control over yourself and not overuse it. Second and third, distractions from others and school as well as too much spent on smartphone. The third point sounds like a redundancy. Too much time spend on the phone leads to distractions from school and cause health problems. For some countries, students are not allowed to bring hand phones especially. Even if they do, I believe with complete self control smart phones are VERY USEFUL in classes especially among teen students! Also at home, when it comes to doing home works, it is important not to get children exhausted. Children also need a break from schoolwork.You can let them play with their gizmos by loading it with a multitude of child-friendly games. You can use it as a method of reward if they"ve accomplished their household chores or if they excelled in class. I think it worths mentioning that , in my opinion even if smart phones can cause health problems, they would be minor and caused by excessive usage. As I mentioned earlier this in turn can be avoided with good time management and self control. So it is important for parents, in fact it is their responsibility for them, to keep a keen eye on their children's usage of smart phone! I don't see why we should expose children to this technology. Sure, a 12 year old with an iPhone that brags all the time would be labelled as spoiled, but, but when we were kids, didn't our parents spoiled us in a different way? When we were a kid, wasn't there always the fat kid in the class who were annoying just as much, who bragged about his limited edition collection cards or gameboy or something. They are just kids being juvenile and that is normal! Just because their parents can afford buying their children smart phones , that doesn't make them bad at parenting. I believe in a long term, a smart phone should be beneficial for children. Before I end my round 3, I'd like to stress that there are more advantages in children having a smart phone than the problems that it can cause t them. With more children getting missing everyday all over the world, it is brilliant to keep a GPS in their pockets so that their parents are always aware of where they are and are readily connected in case of emergency. Therefore, with more benefits on my side I believe that the advantages of owning a smart phone outweigh the bad minor side effects it can cause, qualitatively and quantitatively. http://ynaija.com... Ofcom Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitude Report PBS Parents Guide to Children & Media http://www.salary.com... http://techpageone.dell.com...