WiFi Legislation: Children
Delivered September 18, 2019. Contributor: Dagmawit W.
Goals
To understand the state of legislation/policy around the world with respect to regulating the use of Wi-Fi specifically around children, to understand if there has been any movement on regulating products that have Wi-Fi, to identify countries (globally) and which states have had activity in this area within the past 5-10 years in order to decide to add Wi-Fi to a new product aimed at children.
Early Findings
EFFECTS OF WIFI ON CHILDREN'S HEALTH
AUSTRALIA
- In 2002, Australia established the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) Standard which schools have to adhere to.
- These guidelines were set following the 1998 International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) Guidelines.
- Australia follows the international exposure limit that is set to (3500- 10000mW/m2).
- This upper limit is rather high when it comes to exposure for children. Other countries like Russia have set their limit to one percent of what Australia has, 100 mW/m2. China is set to 0.6% (60 mW/m2), Switzerland at 40 mW/m2 (0.4%), and Luxembourg at 20 mW/m2 (0.2%).
USA
- For public schools and publicly funded libraries, at least 27 states across the US have regulations that limit its use to prevent exposure to explicit content.
- Some states require schools and publicly funded institutions to install filtering software on their computers/terminals.
- New York does not allow cell towers within school property.
- This source provides the state by state regulation on WiFi in public schools and libraries.
- This source provides a list of legislation from various states surrounding schools and cell towers, WiFi in the classroom, and devices.
GLOBAL STATE
- Children in Irish schools face a great health risk from unregulated WiFi.
- One school that was tested was found to have 1,000 times the recommended level of WiFi radiation from a system that was powered on all day.
- In Israel, the situation is different;
- Taiwan has placed a fine of £1,000 on any parent who allows their babies under the age of two to have access to electronic devices.
- Taiwan also limits the amount of time allowed for all children under the age of 18.
Proposed next steps:
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