JEDDAH, 25 June 2006 — Ideally in a utopian world, with modernity comes a culture of civilized and humane behavior — a conduct that could be considered a step away from animal instincts and a shift toward becoming civilized.

The usage of cell phones has been a contentious issue in not only Saudi Arabia but across the world. With reported cases of sexual assaults filmed on camphones and many users, especially the young, exchanging sexually explicit photographs, the Saudi Telecom Company’s latest move to introduce the 3G (Third Generation) cell phone service has generated some diverse opinions among Saudis.

According to STC, the 3G service, which is available in 21 cities across the Kingdom, is a step forward in the ultimate high-tech wireless experience. Among its many other functions, 3G cell phones include videophones and allow users to participate in videoconference calls, view television channels and browse the Internet.

Alaa Hussein, a university student, told Al-Watan Arabic daily that there are positive and negative aspects to all things depending on the user. “Our problem is that whenever a new service is introduced then we, especially Saudi males, abuse it and use it the wrong way,” he said.

Alaa cities the example of Bluetooth and SMS services, which are widely misused across the Kingdom. “People that use these technologies should be educated on how to use them. Teenagers use these technologies to harass people,” he added.

According to university student Muhammad Al-Aqeeli, Bluetooth technology has harmed society, especially women. He complains that there are no solutions and efforts to educate people, especially teenagers. “It’s surprising to see that a new and more dangerous service has now been launched. I believe it will be used negatively rather than positively,” he added.

Muhammad Ibrahim, a Saudi father who sometimes has to go away from home on business trips for short periods of time, said: “The service will be good when fathers are away and wants to see their wives and children.”

However, Ibrahim believes there is an issue about the way people will use the service. “There are potential issues especially because our society is a conservative one. Teenagers could spread pictures of women, and many women find such things very offensive.”

Many Saudi women feel unenthusiastic about the new service. One such woman is Kholood who says she was photographed during her wedding a few months ago.

“Some teenagers took pictures of me on my wedding day and this has caused a lot of problems between me and my husband. I don’t know who took those pictures and why. I think this new service will cause a lot of problems, especially for us women,” she said.

Another Saudi woman feels that teenagers will definitely misuse the service. She said that there are a lot of silly girls who are fooled by sweet-talking teenagers and would allow themselves to be filmed in erotic ways just to impress boys.

“Apart from distributing pictures, boys and girls will be able to see each other. They could also use the service to locate their position, which is very bad,” she said.

Hind Al-Beshri lived abroad for a number of years and has seen the effect of such cell phone services long before they were introduced in Saudi Arabia. Hind says that people abroad seemed rather disinterested in new high-tech developments. “In the Kingdom, however, people are amazed and overawed by Bluetooth and the G3 service.”

An STC spokesman from Riyadh stressed that the new G3 service has many positive features. Families can easily use the service when one of them is traveling abroad or show their location at times of emergencies.

“The service is ideal for businessmen to show samples of their products to clients in faraway areas. As for using the service in a negative way, this usually depends on who is using it. This is a personal choice made by the user. Our company explains what the benefits of 3G are and advise users not to use the service in a negative way.”

As Saudi Arabia slowly embraces a third generation of high-tech prowess in cell phone communications it is left to be seen what sort of challenges 3G will have in store in coming months and years.