In light of the recent past, just how safe do we feel with our cell phones and computers? We've come a long way from truck bombs. Comments? Try to leave Lebanon and such out of this.
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My. there are a lot of users online playing with their keyboards now.

Unless someone intentionally disassembled the cellphone and placed a powerful explosive charge inside it before reassembling it they are safe from it exploding

The most dangerous weapon of all is human intellegence which can come up with these kinds of things.

Remember "The Anarchist Cookbook"?

Just like anything that is electronic and puts out a signal can be monitored.

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The Last Standing Knight

Many pros and cons that come to my mind. A lot of videos get posted online of student violence. It can be violence against another student or in some cases a teacher. In any case it can serve to hold people accountable. In a situation like Sandy Hook cell phones can provide vital information in regards to where the perp is to local authorities and also where the students may be holed up. On the negative side cell phones can be a distraction to students getting the education they are there for.

Unfortunately we live in a Society where those in power think that a "one size fits all" solution is the answer to everything. It doesn't work with firearms and wont work with cell phones. Those that will survive are the ones that can think on their feet and adapt as things change.

If we're talking about cell phones being used as weapons are we to live in fear worrying about what might happen down the road? What can happen will eventually happen and there's nothing that can be done about it. For all the good that technology has done to make our lives easier there are those that will profit by using it against us. I will not be held hostage by those that wish us bad consequences.

Live your life like there's no tomorrow but be thankful when you get to see another sunrise.

Worried about cellphones and laptops in schools? Simple -- BAN THEM, as they should have been banned from the get-go. Never mind the risk of a bomb -- working as they should, they do nothing but distract from education, at best. But, do you know why my school district has not banned them? PARENTS WON'T STAND FOR IT! Or much of any other kind of discipline, unfortunately...

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Pisgah

The only teens I know are my 5 oldest grandkids and a handful from church.

Cell phones are great things! Cell Phone are the scourge of the earth! Take you pick. But it is all in how they are used.

My grandkids (two different households) were 12 to 15 when they got them. They were given access in stages and when they were proven responsible, they were given more access.

The teens at church are a typical slice of the midwestern society the come from. About half do what they are told!

We had a local celebrity's daughter killed texting while driving about 8 years ago. The schools have been funded to push the Don't Text and Drive message. I think in general, Kids are behaving better than their parents with the Driving/Texting.

So, the Phone Issue boils down to: Stupid people do stupid things and get stupid results. Smart people do smart things and get smart results! If you watch them for some time, you will see what kind of people they are.

I didn't get a personal Cell Phone until 1999 (age 43), my kids got theirs at Collage age (or after they got out of the service). The grand kids are 12-15. (the younger ones don't take them to school!) The one thing someone needs to decide is; Are these "Tools or Toys"? My families are treating them like tools, but many are not!

Ivan

My wife is a high school teacher and her class rule is simple. "If I see you messing with your phone I confiscate it" !! She has a phone cubby, puts phone in it and second time it Mom or Dad has to come and get it!!
Does it help? Heck yes, the action is helping in class and little Jill and Jack have to find something else to do, like maybe pay attention.

Unless they're a known terrorist they're probably good to go?

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Dave Ramsey Cultist

The problems aren't cause by cellphones, laptops, schools, the lack of the pledge or prayer in school. The problem is the lack of parenting or the complete lack of parents.

The parents are the ones who should provide, discipline, values in country, religion and education. Many of them do little or nothing and then wail about how the schools failed. How does the same school end up graduating 10 future prison residents and 4 Doctors? They were sent 10 feral kids and 4 with values and discipline.

My kids went to public schools all graduated and became productive members of society. My step daughters both graduated from public schools in the last 2 years, both were A students, one became a national merit scholar and an Eagle scout. One is in college beginning her study in medicine, the other is in her second year of Vo-tech, taking welding courses, while working 30 hours a week in a steel fab shop.

They both had cell phones and lap tops. Their friends all had cell phones and computers and graduated. I have meet them at cook outs in my back yard, at pot lucks at other parents houses, at scout meetings at camp outs my wife and I chaperoned, their Jazz band performances.

I heard all about global warming, trans genders, and other things. Little of it came from the school itself, most of it came from the internet and talk among their friends. Each got a serious discussions involving my wife and I and real life examples. If global warming worries you why do you want a ride to school when you could walk, why do you want a car. If you think we should treat illegals better, why don't we move some in and you can share your bedrooms, family room and money with them.

If you do not value education or have any values, or pass them on to your kids, they aren't going to get them at school, through a cell phone. TV or laptop. If you do have them and pass them along and reinforce them it is unlikely they will be ruined by cell phones and computers. If you haven't want to or the time to do these things with your kids, you never really had time to have kids in the first place

The overall risk is related to - How clever is your adversary?
And - Where was your phone (device) manufactured?

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

My son is very Tech savvy. He punishes his kids by turning off their cell service when they get in trouble, also automatically after 10 pm. I swear my grand kids cry more with no cell phone than my kids did with a belt back in the day.

Ban cellphones....yes for sure.

Laptops....in my school system every kid gets one and most of the course work is on them. Using books are a rarity these days.

My wife teaches HS as well. If she did that she would probably lose her job and most likely our house would be picketed by the dumb kids' parents.

Our governor has asked school boards to adopt cell phone free school policies. As it’s a distraction to learning and has negative impact on mental health.

My wife is a teacher and many classrooms do not allow cell phone use.

This is Montana though, a bit different than most of the country.

The attack pertained to the antiquated technology of pagers.... Rather elegant as these things go.
There's almost no reason to use a pager outside Hezbollah's attempt to dodge detection.
This stunt likely hit the mark with well north of 80% certainty.

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it just needs more voltage

Not so simple.

Some schools today provide laptops to kids, others make parents buy them, either way kind of short sighted to ban them.

My grandson is a type 1 diabetic and after reading a story about a young girl dieing from low blood sugar at a sleep over, my daughter got him a CGM and a cell phone.
A Constant Glucose Monitor works with either a receiver or cell phone. A receiver only shows results in that unit, so if volume is down nobody hear an alarm. A cell phone with internet connection allows the signal to be shared with up to 10 people, so my daughter and I know his sugar level at all times and can be at the school in 5 minutes or less, if we see his levels dropping without him acknowledging it (before an emergency).

When someone says "Ban XYZ", I have to shake my head is disbelief that people are that close minded and shallow.

It has nothing to do with discipline, it's life and death with him and I will fight with ANY means necessary to not allow it to happen.

I think it's indisputable that kids learning is harmed with a cellphone. If we want to continue as we have been, there is no question that cell phones should be banned from the classroom.

But of course there needs to be exceptions. And your case is a perfect example.

The problem is people see that the majority of kids can benefit and the conversation stops.

I agree .....
What this tech brings to the academic table is astonishing.
Several years ago, I got a library card and checked out the local shelves....
Tell you what ... the phone in my pocket dwarfs it's academic power.
Any question man has faced has been answered somewhere, and there's a URL leading to it.
The library can't even come close to this.
Now if we can just get Skippy and Buffy to use that horsepower for something other than snapchat and tinder .....

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it just needs more voltage

If you want to be worried about kids being harmed by cell phones, you shouldn't worry that someone will plant explosives in them. What you should be worrying about instead, as the odds of it happening is exponentially greater, is pedophiles, drug dealers, and others who prey on the young. That is a very real and currently happening danger.

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The best I can with what I got

The biggest threat to kids are other kids, not cell phones or computers.

You know, for some reason, hard as I try, I just can't seem to care.

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Thread Killer.

How many here have daily interactions with a student's curriculum?

I do as I help homeschool the boys. Tablets and cellphones have been and are an absolute boon to their academic advancement. The boys are tech savvy. It is the world they live in and I try to facilitate and foster that as best I can

I wish I had those information portals when I went to school.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

With the near 100% use of backpacks by school kids, I'm more worried about a wacko leaving a backpack with a bomb in a mall food court after school. In our nearest mall, there must be ~200 high schoolers with the ubiquitous rucks scattered all over the place. It wouldn't be too hard to shrug the backpack off, leave it on a chair, go to the pizza line and wander off around a corner from there.
I'm grateful and frankly surprised we haven't had a tragedy of that nature before this.

We can't seem to get refills for prescriptions without a week of standby, thinking it is because we won't put all our info on their portal. This same place has been hacked and forced to pay millions to get their info back.

We have difficulties with paying bills without using their portals. However, I still know how to divide and multiply on paper, if not in my head. Computers are running our vehicles. I'd rather have a younger girl be my friend than AI, and not driving on auto-pilot. Technology has built jobs, and taken them away.

Words have always been taught to me as tools. Some people are typing words and posting pictures that can ruin another person's desire to live.

Matches are great, if used properly. So is gasoline. Such it is with phones and such. You all can use your own definitions of "properly". There is a time for everything good under the sun. Texting should not be done in classrooms, but it is. If you see me pulled over the side of a road, I'm probably texting or deleting a text.

We saw bunches of LEOs with people pulled over today. First thing you think is a sting operation. Next, maybe they are trying to slow people down. MAYBE they were pulling people over holding phones?

I'd like to know our next generations know how to find something on their own and think for themselves, not saying many don't. Stop saying bad things about others, but is this kids or convenience. There are many dangers out there with technology we are not discussing. Saw a woman yesterday walking to her car with books, papers, and pencil and I almost wanted to stop and talk with her. Should have stopped anyway. Curiosity.

Be honest, Rusty. The only difference would've been the size of your collection of pictures.

I've seen a couple of readerboards outside at least two public schools in my area recently with anti-cellphone messages.
One said
"This is a cell-free zone"
and the other said
"No cellphones allowed on campus"
I'm OK with the idea of no cell phones being allowed in public schools.
The negatives of kids using cell phones at school FAR outweigh any positive benefits IMO.

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Send lawyers, guns & money...

We now know that the Israelis did not come up with some way to make normal pagers explode. The pagers involved were manufactured with a small amount of hidden explosive material and then sold to a vendor who in turn sold them to Hezbollah. Apparently the way the Semtex was put into the pager it was not found even when so-called experts at Hezbollah examined the pagers before accepting them (and paying for them!). There is absolutely no reason to worry that somehow your child's cell phone will be remotely detonated by anyone. Worry about what cell phone technology has done to children more generally.

People can track you wherever you go with cellphones. They can copy everything you have written on the internet, cellphones: heck, everything you have even said in some situations. They can know where you have been, how long you have stayed, and these are people from other countries and this one you do not even know. I need to go check the tides and weather.