Petition New penalty of being banned from owning a mobile phone

A mobile phone is such an essential part of daily life now that deprivation of the right to own one would be as inconvenient as being banned from driving. Such a penalty could be applied for misuse of a mobile phone in 'happy slapping' cases, bullying or using a mobile phone to organise illegal activity.

In order to facilitate a ban it would be necessary for network operators to tighten up control of mobile phone ownership. They could be made to be responsible for finding a way to take reasonable steps to ensure that they know who is using their services. There could be a large fine for a network providing mobile phone services to an individual who has been banned. This would mean an end to 'Pay as you go' phones being untraceable. 'Pay as you go' phones could still exist, but would need to be registered.