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| No | 52% | 63 votes | Total: 121 votes | |
| Yes | 48% | 58 votes |
No
by Sarah Vigue
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Add to FavoritesIf you were given the privilege to own and use a cell phone jammer, would you use it? It would be so tempting to zap the phones around you in a place like the movie theater or even better- the library. The satisfaction that comes from silencing the disturbance next to you is almost empowering. The problem is that intolerance to others and the desire to punish or restrict minor annoyances like cell phone noise, will only cause difficulties to you and those around you. Those obnoxious cell phone rings and their inconsiderate owners may have a good reason for disrupting the peace or may turn around and give you a taste of your own medicine.
The whole point of the cell phone jammer is not to jam the phone of the loud talker sitting next to you. The secret service members in Israel were noticing that terrorists were detonating bombs via the terrorists' cell phones. In fact, the infamous train bombings in Madrid of March 2004 were executed this exact way. As a result, the Israelis devised the cell jammers that the secret service now uses to block the signals transmitted to cell phones from the cell towers. Should a member of the secret service have to use a jammer, the unsuspecting terrorist's cell phone, blackberry etc. will experience a disability in "mobile telephone communication within a three-mile (five-kilometer) radius, according to Marco Visscher of Ode magazine's July/August 2008 edition. This particular story in Ode also mentions that this mechanism is "only available for military purposes" but obviously powerful and exciting devices like this are going to be popular enough to crossover to mainstream commercialism. For example, Japan allowed phone jammer use with a permit and France allowed jammer use as long as a functional phone is present and in close proximity in case of emergencies.
Moreover , almost anything can be bought on the Black Market or over the internet. Despite the fact that most countries institute a ban on phone jammers, people are finding ways to obtain and use these illegal devices. Sometimes it makes sense that churches, libraries and government officials would use jammers, but jammers are not necessary for these groups to perform their functions.
The purpose of the cell phone jammer is to prevent or stop crimes like terrorism, not to infringe upon a personal right (talking on a cell phone) or to cause someone to miss an emergency phone call. Universities and banks can continue to post and enforce signs declaring that phones are prohibited. Since the general public uses cell phones and everyone makes mistakes, including the accidental call received during work hours from family members and such, it is necessary for jammers to be used by certified officials only. However, it is extremely necessary for cell phone users to shut off their phones when appropriate and to not just lower the high pitched chirping of the phone volume but to lower the talker's voice when in a restaurant or some other place where others will be disturbed. Freedom of speech and the privilege to own a cell phone should not be abused.
Learn more about this author, Sarah Vigue.
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Yes
I think that people have the right to jam cell phone signals in certain conditions. Now this may be against you're personal belief but do you really want to sit next to that person in the movie theaters that is talking on their phone the whole time ruining your experience of the show. I would say that you wouldn't. Now on the other side do you want so many people making portable ones that you can't get a cell phone call off in New York City.
The first thing that would have to be implemented would be the restrictions for people. Now one of the main implications would be that the majority of the jammers would have to be stationary. These stationary jammers would have to be staying on there own property and not leaking over to another's property. I mean who would want to not be able to use a cell phone in their own home. That would just purely annoying. If the jammers stay on the persons property I honestly don't see a problem with it.
Now that they have some simple rule you'll have quite a few benefits. Some of these include that schools wouldn't have to worry about having cheating with cell phones. Although some school do allow cell phone before and after school they have serious problems with implementing the rules. If there was a cell phone jammer then they would have no problem at all. You wouldn't have to worry about the students using high tones as their ring tone so that they can here it but you can't. So that's just one of the benefits of having a cell phone jammer.
Another reason would be that in some house holds people have problems with their kids going on the cell phone and texting all of their friends during the night. Now if you had a cell phone jammer that wouldn't be a problem. You could have it turn on at 11 or whatever time that you wanted and shut off at 4 or whatever time you need to use your cell phone. This is a totally harmless way of restraining your children from just taking over the house and doing whatever they want.
There are many people that oppose this and say that they need their cell phones on 24/7 encase if there is anything that happens. The only thing is what did we used to do about 20 years ago when there wasn't cell phones yet. The answer would be that we got along fine. Many people still don't have cell phones, so you don't really NEED a cell phone. Although it is a very useful advance in technology, it isn't a necessity at all. We can deal without cellphones every once in a while.
In conclusion I think that people whould have the right to have cell phone jammers on their own property if they so choose. People need to learn to deal without having the ability to text anyone at anytime distracting them from reacting with real people every once in a while.
Learn more about this author, Paul Peters.
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