A recent survey carried out by the price comparison website Moneysupermarket.com questioned 2,000 UK adults about what they hate most about mobile phone usage. The top five pet hates are (in no particular order): people talking loudly on the phone; a person texting while talking to them; loud music being played on phones; using a phone in a restaurant; and swearing on the phone in public.
The conclusion to these annoying habits of others? Slapping an Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) on them, that’s what! ASBOs are usually reserved for rowdy vandals who just generally want to cause mischief and upset, but one in ten Brits think the Anti-Social Behaviour Orders should be given to ‘inconsiderate’ mobile phone users.
An ASBO is, and I quote : “a binding agreement between a person or persons who have committed acts of anti-social behaviour and the police. The principle behind these orders is that they act as a legal and binding contract signed by all parties concerned in the hope that they will reduce the chances of the individual in receipt of the ASBO from causing any further acts of anti-social behaviour”. According to LawandParents.co.uk, two forms of activity which can see you being given an ASBO include: “using intimidating verbal language” and “causing excessive noise”. (So technically, three of the things mentioned in the list of bug-bears, above!!)
More than half of respondents said they believe that the thoughtless use of mobiles in public should be punished - with the most popular option being a 12-month ban on using their phone in public. But one in 10 respondents went further; suggesting offending mobile users should be given ASBOs.
So next time you’re out in public - let’s say on a train somewhere - and being a little too loud on your mobile, stop and think about others in the carriage around you - most of us don’t want to listen to how the plumber showed up 20minutes late, or how your colleague is a pain in the butt, or even what you are having for tea that night! We don’t want to listen to your fowl language and we certainly don’t want to listen to your music, most of us have iPods for that! So if you think you’re being clever and cocky doing any of the above, think again, cos we’ll be the ones having the last laugh when you are issued with an ASBO and your cheeks turn a slight shade of red. Ooooh, imagine the silence that will descend, closely followed by the titter of sniggers from the people around…
Leave us your thoughts about the use of ASBO’s for these inconsiderate phone users.
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:32 am
I’m a Brit, and I don’t want ASBO’s for mobile phone users. I’d much prefer if (a) the people being gits on their phone and (b) the people mithering about people being gits on their phones, would both shut up and leave us normal people alone.
Who’s with me?
May 27th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Bring back the stocks. People would soon see the error of their ways after being pelted with god knows what over the course of an evenings antics in the average british town centre.
I would personally fart in the face of anyone in those stocks on a regular basis.
May 28th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Trouble is, if you give ‘em ASBO’s, chavs’ll be doing to get more ASBO’s to show off to their grandkids (which they have at age 23).
Better idea: if someone is being rude, or antisocial on their mobile phone, take it off them, and batter them with a stick. You gotta be cruel to be kind!