Does your under 12 use a mobile phone? Apparently a leading government advisor has said that children under 12 shouldn’t use a mobile phone reports an article over on the Daily Mail. Professor Lawrie Challis, a physicist and expert on the effects of radiation believes children are not “little adults” and should not have the use of a mobile phone until they reach 12 years of age.

Furthermore Challis added that teenagers should only use their mobile phone for texting and not for voice calls, and remarked that even though there is no evidence that children are more susceptible to radiation than adults the possibility shouldn’t be ruled out.

The former head of the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research programme says, “I think it is plausible because their immune system is still developing and we do know that children are more sensitive to other things, for example ultra-violet light. If a child is exposed to excessive sunlight, they are more likely to get skin cancer than an adult exposed to the same amount. They are more sensitive to pollutants. There is a thinking that they might be at increased risk.”

Challis’ comments come as the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research programme launches a 30 year study which will track the use of mobile phones and the health of 250,000 Europeans of which there are 100,000 Britons, and data on numerous mobile phone calls along with their duration will be compared against health records to find out if mobile phone use exacerbates or triggers cancers such as brain, skin and ear.