Telecom
Cell Phones Causing Young People to Grow Horns on Skulls- Research
Researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia have found evidence that our frequent use of mobile devices could be causing horn-like bone spurs to appear on younger adults.
New research in biomechanics suggested that mobile phones are remolding human skeletons, possibly altering not just the behaviours but the bodies we inhabit.
According to the research, young people are developing hornlike spikes at the back of their skulls — bone spurs caused by the forward tilt of the head, which shifts weight from the spine to the muscles at the back of the head, causing bone growth in the connecting tendons and ligaments.
The weight transfer that causes the buildup can be compared to the way the skin thickens into a callus as a response to pressure or abrasion.
The result is a hook or hornlike feature jutting out from the skull, just above the neck.
In academic papers, a pair of researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia, argues that the prevalence of the bone growth in younger adults points to shifting body posture brought about by the use of modern technology.
They say smartphones and other handheld devices are contorting the human form, requiring users to bend their heads forward to make sense of what’s happening on the miniature screens.
The researchers said their discovery marks the first documentation of a physiological or skeletal adaptation to the penetration of advanced technology into everyday life.
Health experts warn of “text neck,” and doctors have begun treating “texting thumb,” which is not a clearly defined condition but bears resemblance to carpal tunnel syndrome. But prior research has not linked phone use to bone-deep changes in the body.
“An important question is what the future holds for the young adult populations in our study, when development of a degenerative process is evident in such an early stage of their lives?” ask the authors in their most recent paper, published in Nature Research’s peer-reviewed, open access Scientific Reports.
The study came out last year but has received fresh attention following the publication last week of a BBC story that considers, “How modern life is transforming the human skeleton.”
Since then, the unusual formations have captured the attention of Australian media, and have variously been dubbed “head horns” or “phone bones” or “spikes” or “weird bumps.”
Each is a fitting description, said David Shahar, the paper’s first author, a chiropractor who recently completed a PhD in biomechanics at Sunshine Coast.
“That is up to anyone’s imagination,” he told The Washington Post. “You may say it looks like a bird’s beak, a horn, a hook.”
However it is designated, said Shahar, the formation is a sign of a serious deformity in posture that can cause chronic headaches and pain in the upper back and neck.
Part of what was striking about their findings, he said, was the size of the bone spurs, which are thought to be large if they measure 3 or 5 millimeters in length. An outgrowth was only factored in to their research if it measured 10 millimeters, or about two-fifths of an inch.
The danger is not the head horn itself, said Mark Sayers, an associate professor of biomechanics at Sunshine Coast who served as Shahar’s supervisor and co-author. Rather, the formation is a “portent of something nasty going on elsewhere, a sign that the head and neck are not in the proper configuration,” he told The Washington Post.
Their work began about three years ago with a pile of neck X-rays taken in Queensland. The images captured part of the skull, including the area where the bony projections, called enthesophytes, form at the back of the head.
Contrary to conventional understanding of the hornlike structures, which have been thought to crop up rarely and mainly among older people suffering from prolonged strain, Shahar noticed that they appeared prominently on X-rays of younger subjects, including those who were showing no obvious symptoms.
The pair’s first paper, published in the Journal of Anatomy in 2016, enlisted a sample of 218 X-rays, of subjects ages 18 to 30, to suggest that the bone growth could be observed in 41 percent of young adults, much more than previously thought. The feature was more prevalent among men than among women.
The effect — known as enlarged external occipital protuberance — used to be so uncommon, Sayers said, that one of its early observers, toward the end of the 19th century, objected to its title, arguing that there was no real protrusion.
That’s no longer the case.
Another paper, published in Clinical Biomechanics in the spring of 2018, used a case study involving four teenagers to argue that the head horns were not caused by genetic factors or inflammation, pointing instead to the mechanical load on muscles in the skull and neck.
And the Scientific Reports paper, published the month before, zoomed out to consider a sample of 1,200 X-rays of subjects in Queensland, ages 18 to 86.
The researchers found that the size of the bone growth, present in 33 percent of the population, actually decreased with age. That discovery was in stark contrast to existing scientific understanding, which had long held that the slow, degenerative process occurred with aging.
They found instead that the bone spurs were larger and more common among young people. To understand what was driving the effect, they looked to recent developments — circumstances over the last 10 or 20 years altering how young people hold their bodies.
“These formations take a long time to develop, so that means that those individuals who suffer from them probably have been stressing that area since early childhood,” Shahar explained.
The sort of strain required for bone to infiltrate the tendon pointed him to handheld devices that bring the head forward and down, requiring the use of muscles at the back of the skull to prevent the head from falling to the chest. “What happens with technology?” he said.
“People are more sedentary; they put their head forward, to look at their devices. That requires an adaptive process to spread the load.”
That the bone growth develops over a long period of time suggests that sustained improvement in posture can stop it short and even ward off its associated effects.
The answer is not necessarily swearing off technology, Sayers said. At least, there are less drastic interventions.
“What we need are coping mechanisms that reflect how important technology has become in our lives,” he said.
Shahar is pressing people to become as regimented about posture as they became about dental hygiene in the 1970s, when personal care came to involve brushing and flossing every day. Schools should teach simple posture strategies, he said. Everyone who uses technology during the day should get used to recalibrating their posture at night.
As motivation, he suggested reaching a hand around to the lower rear of the skull. Those who have the hornlike feature can likely feel it.
Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), has called for urgent resolution of the regulatory dispute affecting the airtime credit market, warning that continued disruption could harm millions of Nigerians and undermine investor confidence.
Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, ALTON, in a statement on Tuesday, said the situation goes beyond a disagreement between regulators, describing it as a critical test of the country’s regulatory credibility.
“What is happening in the airtime credit market is not simply a dispute between regulators. It is a test of whether the structures that underpin business confidence in this country are functioning as they should.
“Court orders have been issued, businesses hold valid licences, and consumers are still being affected. We believe all parties have a responsibility to bring this to an orderly resolution,” he said.
The dispute stems from overlapping regulatory claims between the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) over the control of airtime credit and Value Added Services.
According to Adebayo, interims injunctions by Federal High Courts in Lagos and Abuja had restrained interference in the operations of licensed providers, including Nairtime Nigeria Limited and members of the Wireless Application Service Providers Association of Nigeria.
However, the continued disruption of services despite subsisting court orders has raised concerns across the telecom industry.
ALTON maintained that the regulatory framework for licensed Value Added Service providers falls under the NCC, warning that unresolved jurisdictional overlap is driving uncertainty in the market.
Adebayo said the association had earlier flagged the issue to the NCC, noting that conflicting regulations risk undermining both legal clarity and commercial stability.
He stressed that the impact of the disruption is being felt most by ordinary Nigerians who rely on airtime credit as a financial lifeline.
“These are not abstract figures. Behind every naira in that market is a Nigerian who cannot go to a bank and get a loan. Airtime credit is how they bridge the gap.“When the service goes dark, they feel it immediately,” Adebayo said.
He added that the market, estimated to be worth between ₦300 billion and ₦400 billion annually, plays a critical role for traders, artisans and small-scale entrepreneurs who depend on short-term credit for daily transactions.
On investor sentiment, Adebayo warned that uncertainty in regulatory coordination could discourage long-term investment in Nigeria’s digital economy.
“Investors take their cues from how disputes are managed, not just how they begin. A market where regulatory jurisdiction is unclear and where resolving that uncertainty causes disruption will struggle to attract the kind of long-term investment Nigeria needs,” he said.
ALTON called on both the FCCPC and NCC to urgently coordinate and clarify their roles, urging that any resolution must align with existing court orders.
The association also expressed readiness to engage with regulators and the Federal Government to restore stability in the market.
The development comes amid confusion over the status of airtime and data credit services after the FCCPC dismissed claims that it had banned the services, describing such reports as false and misleading.
Despite the clarification, major telecom operators, including MTN Nigeria and Airtel Nigeria, temporarily suspended airtime and data borrowing services.
The disruption has affected millions of subscribers who rely on the services for emergency communication, particularly through the widely used *303# short code.
The FCCPC had reportedly directed operators to comply with its Digital, Electronic, Online, or Non-Traditional Consumer Lending Regulations 2025, requiring engagement only with approved service providers.
Subscribers have since expressed frustration, describing the suspension as disruptive to daily communication needs and economic activities.
Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has struck out a high-profile lawsuit that sought to nullify the 50 percent telecommunications tariff hike approved by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on January 1, 2025 .
The ruling, delivered by Justice M.G. Umar, effectively shuts down a case that had threatened to force telecom operators including MTN Nigeria to reimburse subscribers with interest and pay N100 million in general damages.
The Court held that it lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit due to a fundamental flaw on the part of the applicant.
The suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/643/2025 – Barr. Obioma Ezenwobodo v. Nigerian Communications Commission & MTN Nigeria Communications Plc was originally filed on October 21, 2025, by the applicant.
In his Application for Judicial Review, Ezenwobodo, through Joseph Onu Silas, his counsel, sought three major reliefs against both the NCC (the industry regulator) and MTN Nigeria (the 2nd Respondent) – an order prohibiting and setting aside the NCC’s rule and regulation approving the 50 percent telecommunication tariff adjustment (popularly referred to as the tariff hike) issued on Monday, January 20, 2025; an order mandating the NCC and MTN Nigeria, their servants, agents, licensees, and staff to reimburse, return, and pay back with interest all deductions, tariffs, and charges made as a result of the said 50 percent tariff hike.
He also sought an order of N100 million as general damages against the respondents, citing untold hardship, economic deprivation, psychological distress, and pain suffered by the applicant due to the alleged illegal and arbitrary charges.
Counsel to MTN Nigeria Communications Plc, Ituah Imhanze and Divine Oguru of Kenna LP on November 24, 2025, opposed the applicant’s originating motion, and challenged the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court to hear the suit. In that motion, MTN urged the Court to dismiss or strike out the suit entirely in limine (at the outset).
The jurisdictional challenge was argued on January 26, 2026, with Divine Oguru Esq., Senior Counsel from Kenna LP, appearing for MTN Nigeria.
The applicant and the NCC were also represented by their respective counsel.
Delivering a well considered judgment, Justice M.G. Umar upheld the core arguments advanced by MTN Nigeria’s legal team.
The Court ruled decisively on the issue of locus standi – the legal right of the applicant to bring the case before the Court. Justice Umar found that Barrister Obioma Ezenwobodo had failed to demonstrate any special interest in the subject matter of the suit beyond that of the general public.
The Court noted that the 50 percent tariff hike applied to all telecom consumers, not uniquely or disproportionately to the applicant.
As such, the applicant’s grievance was a general grievance, not one showing a specific, personal, or greater injury than that suffered by any other Nigerian telecom subscriber.
Because the applicant lacked the requisite locus standi, the Court held that it had no jurisdiction to entertain the suit. Consequently, the matter was struck out.
On the issue of legal costs, the Court directed that parties bear their respective costs, meaning no award of damages or reimbursement was granted against MTN Nigeria or the NCC.
The ruling is a significant legal endorsement of NCC’s regulatory authority to approve tariff adjustments and confirms that MTN Nigeria and other operators in the telecommunications sector may continue to implement the 50 percent tariff hike without legal hindrance from challengers lacking direct personal standing.
Industry observers note that the judgment sets an important precedent: future challenges to industry-wide pricing policies must be brought by parties who can show a concrete, particularised injury distinct from that of the general consuming public.
Telecom
Despite Security Concerns, Reps Push for 18-Month Delay before Inactive Phone Numbers are Reassigned
House of Representatives has asked the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to extend the validity period for inactive phone numbers before they are reassigned to new users to 18 months.
Recall that SIM card security concerns, prompted the NCC launched the Telecoms Identity Risk Management System (TIRMS) late March 2026 to curb fraud linked to SIM recycling.
This portal will allow regulators and banks to track reassigned numbers.
NCC regulations require 360 days of inactivity before a SIM can be recycled.
But the House of Representatives, said the proposed extension from the current timeline would enhance compliance with the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023.
The House resolution followed the adoption of a motion sponsored by the member representing Orhionmwon/Uhunmwode Federal Constituency of Edo State, Billy Osawaru.
Leading the debate on the motion, Mr Osawaru warned that the current practice of recycling dormant SIM cards without sufficient public notification exposes unsuspecting Nigerians to embarrassment, extortion and even wrongful criminal suspicion.
He said some reassigned numbers often remain tied to sensitive personal records, including bank verification numbers and national identity data, creating opportunities for misuse by new subscribers or criminal actors.
Adopting the motion, the House called on the NCC to ensure inactive SIM cards earmarked for reallocation are published in national newspapers during a six-month notice period and that details of such numbers be shared with security agencies to improve transparency and aid crime prevention.
The house noted that the move would help reduce risks associated with recycled phone numbers while improving accountability in the telecommunications sector.
Following adoption of the motion, the House mandated its Committees on Communications and Commerce to engage the NCC, the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) and other stakeholders and report back within four weeks for further legislative action.
Data Privacy Ignorance Threatens National Security – DKIPPI
ALTON Urges Urgent Resolution of Regulatory Dispute over Airtime Loans
Court Strikes Out Suit against NCC over 50 Percent Tariff Hike
Despite Security Concerns, Reps Push for 18-Month Delay before Inactive Phone Numbers are Reassigned
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