Prepaid Cell Phones (Should it be banned?)

Prepaid cell phone service can protect privacy. One can buy a phone for cash and pay cash in advance for service. There are no billing records, and records of calls made on the phone are not linked to the owner. Cell phone carriers and governments in a few countries have considered ending prepaid phone service because criminals use it to avoid law enforcement agencies who can not trace them. What are some legitimate uses for prepaid cell phones? Should prepaid cell phones be banned or otherwise controlled by law (i.e. require cell phone users to register their prepaid cell phones so they can be tracked)? Give your reasons.

Photobucket

         Cell phones have become essential devices in humans' life. No matter what the brand, these days cell phones come in handy and offer hundred of helpful tools that people have never imagined in the past. It cannot be avoided that people in this generation tend to spend most of their time looking to their cell phones or scrolling down in social media. In the U.S, it is estimated that there have been 207.2 million smartphone users. Some people prefer to buy prepaid phones that do not require them to pay a contract every month. Prepaid cell phones are perfectly suitable for those who rarely use their cellular devices.

         Speaking about prepaid cell phones, one of the advantage of having prepaid cellphones is that it can protect the user's  privacy because there will be no billing information and other cellular activities recorded. Legitimately, prepaid cell phones might be more preferable because one does not have to spend more money to pay the monthly contract. It can be described like this: If someone only uses his/her phones to make emergency calls, it is more logically make sense to pay $0.5 per minute instead of paying $40 every months. People only pay prepaid phones as they use it.

          However, because prepaid cell phones can protect the user's privacy, they become first choice of the criminals. It also causes so many debate between government and the society to decide: "Should prepaid cell phones be banned for good?" In my opinion, I believe that prepaid cell phones offer more eases and comforts than contract cell phones do. In order to suppress the number of criminalities with prepaid cell phones, I believe the government, carrier companies, and phone companies should work together. For example, the cell phone companies should have enough information of the buyer before selling their products. Therefore, when government agent traces people who do criminalities they can get their information from the phones that are used. However, it is important to note that privacy is fundamental thing that is demanded by every human beings. Tracking by mobile phones should be done by the permit from the authority.