The main issue is not that the guns can kill people on their own. The more significant question is how modern technology facilitates, makes it easy or coerces humans into misusing it. It is not guns but people who kill people. I would just stress that guns make it more accessible as it requires no training and guns often kill whereas knives sometimes wound, sometimes kill. There are other crimes associated with mobile technology too than just killing especially the online sexual harassment.
I would not say that there has to be legislation for the sale of mobile technology as in itself its simple technology with no apparent harm. It is the intent of the user that could be either right or wrong, beneficial or harmful. To better control, children’s mobile usage should be monitored by the parents. Access to mobile apps and websites should be controlled and monitored. Many of us, including me, make our best efforts to control and are already tracking the iPad/mobile access but it is the young people like Michelle and Roy who would require a more considerable attempt than this. A good solution would be the teaching of ethics, right and wrong about modern technologies at the school level. Social learning and self-control should be explicitly taught to the school going children. The stronger their restraint, the lesser they would be attracted towards the criminal acts probably. Gottfredson and Hirschi’s (1990) Self-Control Theory suggests that people develop personal traits that control individuals’ inability to refrain from crime. This latent trait, also identified as self-control, appears in early childhood and remains stable over one’s lifetime. According to Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990), people with low self-control tend to be impulsive, insensitive, physical, risk-taking, short-sighted, and non-verbal. (Choi et al., 2017)
I think majorly the problem is about self-control and it can be administered appropriately by social learning theory and self-control theory. Choi et al. (2017) concluded in their research that “Social learning theory and self-control theory are the two major theories that had the most significant impact for predicting online sexual harassment using a mobile device. The findings here can be utilized in future research in regards to juvenile delinquency in cyberspace. The hope is that juveniles will be able to conduct business and activities in cyberspace without the threat of being victims or perpetrators of deviant behaviours.
References:
Choi et al. (2017) ‘Mobile Phone Technology and Online Sexual Harassment among Juveniles in South Korea – Effects of Self-control and Social Learning.’ International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 11(1), pp. 110-127.
Shammas, M. (2017) It’s Time To Retire The ‘Guns Don’t Kill People — People Kill People’ Argument. Guns DO Kill People. Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/its-time-to-retire-the-guns-dont-kill-people-people_us_59e0f6d4e4b09e31db975887 (Accessed: 14 January 2017)
