Prepaid Cell Phones
Should Prepaid Cell Phones be Banned?
Prepaid cell phone service is providing a cell phone that people can pre-charge for the desired amount (credit). If an
individual use all credits that are purchased in advance, mobile network
refuses access of requested service. The character of this service is that
people who don’t have the
phone number, permanent address, or credit card can use this service depending
on the local laws. It means that this service is not related to a personal
credit card or bank account and there is no payment information. So it can
protect users’ privacy.
However, some people abuse the feature of prepaid cell phone service. Some people who want to avoid trace of the police such as criminals or
illegal immigrants can use this service to hide their identities. This is also
used for terror. Actually, terrorists of September 11 attacks conducted the
conspiracy in secret by using the prepaid cell phone. They communicated with
each other in months before attacking but police couldn’t smoke their plot. In
South Korea, the prepaid mobile phone is also often used by criminals. One
murderer escaped after kidnapping one woman and killing her. The police figured
out who the criminal is but they took a long time arresting him. Because he
used the prepaid cell phone, it was hard for police to trace him. Then, should
the government ban prepaid cell phones?
In my opinion, banning the use of prepaid cell phones is the extreme decision because prepaid mobile phones also have positive things. Not everyone
uses it with bad intent. There is the legitimate use of prepaid cell phones. A
lot of travelers have used this service. Using prepaid cell phone is relatively
cheaper than using international roaming service or rental phone. Therefore,
the government should control prepaid cell phone service by making law rather
than ban it. If the government regulates that people have to present
identification when they buy the prepaid cell phone and seller have to keep
buyers’ information,
its misuse would reduce and people can keep using this service legally.
I agree with you. I also think control prepaid cell phone service by making law is the most reasonable way. I like your introduction about prepaid cell phone because I'm not familiar with it and your introduction help me to understand. I think we can think about deeper questions on prepaid cell phone laws. For example, what kind of information should we take? How to perform it? Senator Chuck Schumer and Senator John Cornyn proposed Pre-Paid Mobile Device Identification Act in 2010 but failed. We can learn the disadvantages and problems about proposing prepaid cell phone laws from their failure.
ReplyDeleteHI Lucy, I cannot agree your opinions more. You have specifically listed the advantages and disadvantages of using prepaid cell phones, which gives more ideas for me after I have written the article of the same question. However, one thing I may have different opinion is your suggestion for prepaid cell phones. As we all know, the most basic feature of prepaid cell phone is its security, that's why people like to buy it. If you want to register the personal information of users, the level of its security will dramatically decrease, which may reduce the interests of people. If mobile companies cannot get benefits from the service, they will decide to stop it. When government is hesitating whether it should ban prepaid cell phones, mobile companies will stop using it first.
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ReplyDeleteI have always believed that personal information is inviolable, whatever the government cancel the prepaid phone or not, they should respect the citizen's private right which was given by the fourth amendment of U.S. constitution. Prepaid cellphone do solve lots of issues, especially when someone could not afford to pay their phone bill monthly and for someone who doesn't use their cellphone a lot, prepaid cellphone could save them lots of money.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the idea that prepaid phone help criminals hide their identity, but I think cancel prepaid phone is necessary. Our today's life rely internet too much, and most internet sercice require a fix phone number, if too much people use prepaid phone, it will very convient when they use internet services.
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