Wi-Fi Bad For Kids Again: Possibly, Sort Of

Following on from last week’s scare into Wi-Fi being potentially harmful for kids, today we have another one, with a leading government advisor claiming that kids should not place laptops on their laps when using Wi-Fi.

This stuff has more than a whiff of similarity to the ‘mobile phone/radiation’ scares. This time, Professor Lawrie Challis, who heads the committee on mobile phone safety research, told the Daily Telegraph that laptops on kid’s laps put them too close to the transmitter and exposes them to mobile phone levels of radiation. He said:

“With a desktop computer, the transmitter will be in the tower. This might be perhaps 20cms from your leg and the exposure would then be around one per cent of that from a mobile phone. However if you put a laptop straight on your lap and are using Wi-Fi, you could be around 2cms from the transmitter, and receiving comparable exposure to that from a mobile phone.”

Half of UK schools are currently equipped with Wi-Fi networks and teachers are now weighing in on the subject. The Professional Association of Teachers is writing to the education secretary for confirmation that Wi-Fi is not harmful.

That means you can expect to see yet another Wi-Fi safety report commissioned for a few million quid and, in about two years and after numerous delays, it will deliver either contradictory or inconclusive results, leading to - yes, you guessed it - another pricey report. Expect this hot potato to run and run.-Martin Lynch