MOBILE PHONES: How's your text life?

Like designer trainers and video games, the mobile phone has had a major impact on young people's lives. Mobile phones are inextricably linked with fashion and image, and are the key to acceptance and a social life for many teens. And with that has come a culture that is usually off limits to older generations.

But that also makes the mobile a useful tool for adult professionals such as youth workers, especially if they are willing to embrace the culture.

"Mobile phones are really handy when you need to get hold of young people quickly," says Lee McDaid, mentoring co-ordinator at Lewisham Council.

"Before, you could only talk to them in person, or catch them on the land line phone if they were at home. For some young people it's the form of communication they are most comfortable with."

Talk to young people and most will say the mobile has enriched their lives. But like everything else in life, too much of a good thing could be bad for you. According to child safety organisation Childalert, young people have become obsessed with their mobiles and SMS texting. Many now spend all their money on funding this obsession, says a Childalert report, Mobile phones: An addiction, a necessity or just fun?

"There can be a breakdown in communication with the family, because they are obsessed with receiving a text," says Clare Scott Dryden, Childalert founder and director. "At the same time, teens can feel a sense of self-worth. To get a message implies importance."

And while the ubiquity of mobile phones has been fuelled in part by their increasing affordability, that does not mean they are affordable to everyone.

For many people they are still expensive. Their importance to young people's image, and their social lives, only serves to heighten the sense of have-not among those for whom mobiles are out-of-reach items. That has led to the growth of mobile phone crime, with young people victims and perpetrators.

Home Office research shows that if you were at school between 2000 and 2001, you were five times more likely than the rest of the population to be targeted by phone thieves.

With 710,000 mobile phones stolen during 2000/01, almost half (48 per cent) of mobile phone robbery victims during the period were under 18, while a third of all mobile phone robbery offenders were aged 15 or 16.

And a report by the Youth Justice Board, entitled Young People and Street Crime, suggests that mobile phones are at the top of the list of status symbols desired by thieves.

The research, conducted by academics at the London School of Economics and the University of Kent, found street crime was related to consumer culture and a desire for new technology. Although young people previously robbed each other of expensive clothing, mobile phones are a new commodity.

Schoolchildren interviewed for the research emphasise the shift in mood: "The status on trainers isn't as great any more: they're not the latest thing. Trainers used to get nicked, but mobiles get nicked 10 times more."

Responsible marketing

The problem is not helped by young people's exposure to marketing, suggests Scott Dryden of Childalert.

"Years ago, young people used to have cigarettes in their hand, now it's mobile phones," he says. "Mobile phones make young people feel part of a crowd and accepted."

Whether the marketing of mobiles is to blame is unclear, but, officially, the mobile phone industry does not target young people under 16.

Mobile phone firm Nokia's spokesman says it avoids targeting this age group because mobile phones have ongoing usage costs, paying for which is a "family decision". He acknowledges that crime is a problem for young people, but suggests this should diminish as users become more safety conscious and try to protect their phones.

"If something costs you more than 100, you look after it," he says. "People are going into phone boxes to use their mobiles."

Dawn Roberts, deputy manager at Birmingham's youth offending team, says young people can fall into mobile crime because their friends dare them.

"This offence can be based around peer pressure and being in groups," says Roberts. "It's down to consumerism. Young people see mobiles as a must. Those who can't afford one take one."

To tackle the problem, the youth offending team set up a project 18 months ago called the Robbery Programme, which used video to bring home the emotions of phone theft victims to young offenders aged 10 to 17.

Put yourself in their place

In the project, first-time offenders at risk of custody took part in victim empathy work and role-playing workshops, and teamed up with a local film company and young professional actors to produce a video called Jacked.

It showed scenes of robbery and traumatised victims and has been distributed among neighbouring youth offending teams.

Roberts says only three of the 75 participants in the scheme between January and March 2003 have reoffended.

To address the problem nationally, in March the Home Office teamed with Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum (MICAF) to set up a 1.5m campaign called Immobilise Phone Crime. Supported by pop group Liberty X, the campaign encourages 11 to 17-year-olds to call a phone line, 08701 123123, to block stolen mobile phones using its unique 15-digit serial or IMEI number, which can be accessed by keying in *#06#.

The campaign aims to educate teenagers and pre-teens about the seriousness of mobile theft, because thieves caught trying to re-program stolen mobiles now face up to five years in prison.

The campaign is also asking young people in places such as Birmingham and Liverpool to interview their peers about their experiences of mobile theft. Recruited via local press, the survey will ask young people what they feel are the most appropriate penalties for thieves.

The trauma of mobile phone robbery is also a main theme for a new project set to take place in Wolverhampton, called Prudential 4 Youth, which is part of a national programme backed by financial firm Prudential and crime reduction organisation Crime Concern.

The project will see 17 young people, aged between 12 and 13, from Aldersley High School in Wolverhampton, put together a 20-minute theatre production dealing with the impact of mobile phone crime on victims and witnesses.

Script development sessions have shown mobiles are stolen as a form of bullying or revenge. Young people in the group believed teenagers were paid by others to steal a mobile phone.

With partners including West Midlands Police, the local Mander shopping centre and secondary schools, the show aims to help young people take action to prevent mobile phone robbery. It will be toured with professional actors in 19 secondary schools in the area in July.

But some youth services have decided to use offenders' knowledge to deter mobile thieves. A partnership between Lewisham Youth Service and its youth offending team last year challenged offenders and those at risk of offending to think of ideas to make life more difficult for potential thieves.

The group, aged from 10 to 17, interpreted these ideas into banners of 6ft by 6ft graffiti artwork. The work was presented to industry bigwigs, such as Virgin Mobile chairman Richard Branson, at a brainstorming event held at Lord's cricket ground in December.

Key messages were included in training material for police officers who were placed in schools in some of the UK's highest street crime areas.

Femi Oye, senior youth and community development officer at Lewisham Council, says ideas included a phone that could only dial three numbers, for mum, dad and a friend, a thumbprint-activated phone and an ink dye phone that could be activated remotely and squirt blue permanent dye on the thief.

"It got them thinking about how to tackle issues of street crime and young people as the victims of crime," says Oye.

MOBILE FACTS

- According to the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum, more than 50 million people in the UK own a mobile phone. Figures for mobile use among young people in the UK are hard to come by, but 76 per cent of the total number of people with a mobile are aged between 18 and 24-years-old

- In Europe, more than 190m people aged 16 or above own or use a mobile phone, according to Forrester Research

- A total of 1.3 billion text messages were sent in Britain in April 2003, which equates to 44 million text messages a day. This figures compares with 30 million text messages a day a year ago

- Texting has become so popular, Norwich City Council and Ipswich Borough Council allowed residents to vote at this year's local elections in Norfolk and Suffolk via SMS

MOBILES AND YOUNG PEOPLE

All my mates have got a mobile. I don't know anyone who hasn't - Abi, aged 17, Catford

The smaller the phone the better - it looks bad if you have a big brick phone - Luke, aged 15, Catford

I waste nuff dollars on my mobile, on top-up cards and stuff - Chenelle, aged 17, Catford

txt is fst + easy i lyk dat - Gemma, aged 15, Catford

I used to have a mobile but I got rid of it a few months ago because it cost me too much. Instead, I now use my home telephone. It gives me enough privacy. When I had a mobile I could talk to my friends whenever I felt like it. But mobiles stop people talking as much face to face. I see more of my friends by going to their homes - Chris O'Hara, aged 14, Merseyside

I sold my mobile, because I didn't really use it. I only used it in emergencies, which is a good point for mobiles but I don't miss having one. Most of my friends have mobiles but it doesn't matter, as I can use the phone at home - Gavin Johnson, aged 14, Merseyside.