FINLAND. Helsinki. Lauttasaaren High School. One of the largest high schools in Helsinki, with 650 pupils Ð boys and girls aged 13-19. Mobile phones are extremely popular with high school children with almost 100% ownership amongst the pupils. Whilst they are not allowed to use the phones in the classrooms, they are very popular in break, especially in the form of SMS Ð short text messages. Pupils, especially girls, grow emotionally attached to their mobile phones often decorating the plastic casing with nail varnish and personalising their phone memory bank. But a frequent problem in the school, according to the headmistress, is theft of phones. Pictures show children using their mobiles phones. In a group of 6 children their names are (l to r) Marika Simpanen (13), Mirka Jervomaa (13), Lotta ErkilŠ (13), Toni Saarinen(14), Tatu Sainio (13) Oskari vall (13). Typically schoolkids send
60-70 text messages a month of up to 160 characters a month. The messages are social Ð arranging a place to meet or suchlike. It is worth pointing out that no country has a higher penetration of mobile phones than Finland (73% of the total population) with the next countries being Norway, Sweden, Israel and Australia all with over 60%.
Middle Europeans countries such as UK, France and
Germany have around 50% penetration. January 2001.