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products. Nonetheless, to use the term 'human'
forces one to take a broader view of human beings
than simply a consideration of his or her cognitive
capacity. Psychological studies may reveal how
a product should look, sound, or feel, yet these
kinds of practical design concerns, we argue, tell
us very little about the more complicated, ethical
issues involved.
Social issues, in particular, are beyond the
scope of traditional HCI studies. Even as human-
sounding a strategy as user centred design, may
turn against the construction of a better world for
human beings: As discussed by Halttunen, Maksi-
mainen and Pirhonen (2010), the construction of
human society is inevitably a reciprocal process
between individuals and the society. HCI - due
to its history - is fundamentally individualistic.
The individualistic approach is extremely clear
in mobile HCI, which mostly focuses on the de-
velopment of consumer products. The underlying
rationale is usually to make new products desirable
for potential customers. Little attention is paid to
the social impact of any potential success for the
business. For instance, the idea and vision of a
portable telephone in a pocket must have sounded
great twenty years ago. However, now when the
vision has been implemented, we can easily ob-
serve that it did not only help individuals to use
the telephone, but changed our society in many
ways. This impact in our culture was hardly part
of the vision.
In this paper, we challenge people, who are
involved in the research and development of
mobile HCI, to take an active role in the discus-
sion of the inevitable ethical problems resulting
from the rapid penetration of mobile applications.
Some of the ethical examples raised in this paper
may appear far-fetched in terms of the mobile HCI
tradition. However, we think that the mobile HCI
community cannot afford to shy away from or
wash their hands of these difficult ethical issues.
As long as we are part of the structure which de-
velops a mobile computing culture; we are also
responsible for the results.
What follows is a discussion of a number of
topics which we feel deserve more attention from
the mobile HCI community. Most of them, if not
all, could be categorised under the heading of
'health', not only physical health, but also mental
and social aspects of well being. The term 'welfare'
also feels appropriate and we take this to include
a broad variety of positive qualities important to
consider when we are trying to construct a better
future.
ROASTING YOUR BRAINS
It is not headline news to report that mobile
phones, when used in their traditional handset form
adversely affect human brains. The health risks
associated with this form of radiation are highly
controversial, and there is no sign of this debate
being resolved in the near future. At present it is
difficult for a consumer to find relevant informa-
tion about the risks, while commercial interests are
so evident in both the research and reporting of
research in the area. In a recent analysis (Marino
& Carubba, 2009) it was found that vast majority
of the EMF (electro magnetic field) health risk
reports have been wholly or partially funded by
mobile phone industry. It is hardly surprising, that
when a mobile phone manufacturer is funding
a health risk study, the published results never
indicate any potential danger. One thing we can
say for sure is that currently no one really knows
how severe the risk is.
What is the role of the mobile technology
designer in terms of possible health risks? A
good example of what the role should
not
be was
highlighted in a brief interview about ten years
ago. In those days, most of the mobile phones had
a visible aerial on the top of the device. It was
known that the radiation is strongest in the im-
mediate proximity of the aerial. A phone designer
was asked, whether the aerial could be situated at
the bottom of the device, thus markedly increasing
the distance between the aerial and the brain. The
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