Tottenham Council may suspend Wi-Fi in schools

A body within Tottenham Council has called for wireless technology to be suspended in schools until security concerns have been addressed.

The decision followed a presentation to an influential council committee by anti Wi-Fi campaigners.

"I quite frankly think we are frying children's brains," said Labour councillor Emma Jones of Bruce Grove, as reported in the Tottenham, Wood Green and Edmonton Journal. 

"I am really worried that we going to wake up in 20 years with serious problems. We really do not know what we are doing to them."

The committee recommended several actions on Wi-Fi in the area. These include writing to schools to warn them of the council's concerns, suspending Wi-Fi use completely, promoting the use of wired internet and hosting a seminar to discuss the issues.

Liberal Democrat councillor David Winskill said there were genuine questions and concerns over the use of Wi-Fi in schools. "Up to now we have had to rely on spin from the IT and telecoms industries," he said.

"A properly organised, neutral seminar will at least give head teachers and governors the opportunity to make choices and decisions based on the best available information and advice."

The recommendations must be approved by the council executive body for Wi-Fi use to be suspended in the borough's schools.

Debate over the safety of wireless networks was ignited after Panorama claimed that a school using Wi-Fi recorded radiation that was three times as high as that coming from a mobile phone mast. 

Following the programme, Sir William Stewart, chairman of the Health Protection Agency, reiterated his calls for an investigation into the health effects of Wi-Fi on children. 

However, the Panorama investigation and subsequent reports have been dismissed as scare-mongering by many in the industry.

"Many readers may be feeling that they need to wear tin-foil hats following the recent BBC Panorama 'exposé' of Wi-Fi and the supposedly harmful effects on the brains of children caused by installing wireless networks in schools," wrote columnist Les Hatton in IT Week. 

"All I can say in reassurance is that this sort of mathematically dysfunctional, scare-mongering drivel really makes me cross."

See also:

Jobs hints at 3G iPhone

Apple chief admits failings of Edge  29 Jun 2007

London is the Wi-Fi capital of the world

Overtakes New York as global hotspot  15 Jun 2007

Demand for Wi-Fi mobiles to explode

Dual-mode handsets set for take off this year, reports In-Stat  04 Jun 2007

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