A $7 Smartphone

An Indian company has announced a new smartphone priced at $7. Ringing Bells’ Freedom 251 phone has 8GB storage and rear and front facing cameras. The smartphone age has brought every good and evil thing to people’s fingertips, including the fingertips of children. In Israel, 83% of children aged 8-15 are in possession of a smartphone; 93% use their mobile devices for at least four hours every day; half say they are online within 15 minutes after waking, connecting with friends via social networks like Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, and Snapchat. A typical teen exchanges 3,400 texts per month (116 texts per day). The smartphone and the Internet are simply tools, yet the moral and spiritual danger is great. In our new youth discipleship course, we show how that the home, the church, and young people can work together to protect God’s people from the pitfalls of the smartphone age.The Mobile Phone and the Christian Home and Church is available in print and a free eBook edition from www.wayoflife.org.

(Friday Church News Notes, February 26, 2016, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

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