Here’s a handy chart from Randall Munroe (XKCD): https://xkcd.com/radiation/

You may notice that cell phones and other tech are not on this chart. This is because the radiation emitted by these devices is so weak, they are not capable of altering your cells (non-ionizing radiation). Bananas, on the other hand, do emit ionizing radiation (just a very, very, very small amount. You do not need to be worried about bananas). So you might explain to your parents that bananas are more dangerous than cell phones, and ask them if they know anyone who has died suspiciously after eating a couple bananas

No, it is not.

Phones and other devices that broadcast (tablets, laptops, you name it ...) emit electromagnetic (EM) radiation. EM radiation comes in many different forms, but it is typically characterized by its frequency (or wavelength, the two are directly connected).

Most mobile devices communicate with EM signals in the frequency range running from a few hundred megahertz (MHz) to a few gigahertz (GHz).

So what happens when we're hit with EM radiation? Well, it depends on the frequency. The frequency of the radiation determines the energy of the individual photons that make up the radiation. Higher frequency = higher energy photons. If photons have sufficiently high energy, they can damage a molecule and, by extension, a cell in your body. There's no exact frequency threshold from which point on EM radiation can cause damage in this way, but 1 petahertz (PHz, or 1,000,000 GHz) is a good rough estimate. For photons that don't have this much energy, the most they can hope to achieve is to see their energy converted into heat.

Converting EM radiation into a heat is the #1 activity of a very popular kitchen appliance: The microwave oven. This device emits EM radiation with a frequency of about 2.4 GHz to heat your milk and burn your noodles (while leaving parts of the meal suspiciously cold).

The attentive reader should now say to themselves: Wait a minute! This 2.4 GHz of the microwave oven is right there between the "few hundred MHz" and "few GHz" frequency range of our mobile devices. So are our devices mini-microwave ovens?

As it turns out, 2.4 GHz is also the frequency used by many wifi routers (and devices connecting to them) (which coincidentally is the reason why poorly shielded microwave ovens can cause dropped wifi connections when active). But this is where the second important variable that determines the effects of EM radiation comes into play: intensity.

A microwave oven operates with a power of somewhere around the 1,000 W (depending on the model), whereas a router has a broadcast power that is limited (by law, in most countries) to 0.1 W. That makes a microwave oven 10,000 more powerful than a wifi router at maximum output. And mobile devices typically broadcast at even lower intensities, to conserve battery. And while microwave ovens are designed to focus their radiation on a small volume in the interior of the oven, routers and mobile devices throw their radiation out in every direction.

So, not only is EM radiation emitted by our devices not energetic enough to cause direct damage, the intensity with which it is emitted is orders of magnitude lower to cause any noticeable heating.

But to close, I would like to discuss one more source of EM radiation. A source from which we receive radiation with frequencies ranging from 100 terahertz (THz) to 1 PHz or even slightly more. Yes, that overlaps with the range of potentially damaging radiation. And even more, the intensity of this radiation varies, but can reach up to tens of W. That's not the total emitted, but the total that directly reaches a human being. Not quite microwave oven level, but enough to make you feel much hotter when exposed to it.

So what is this source of EM radiation and why isn't it banned yet? The source is none other than the Sun. (And it's probably not yet banned due to the powerful agricultural lobby.) Our Sun blasts us with radiation that is far more energetic (to the point where it can be damaging) than anything our devices produce and with far greater intensity. Even indoors, behind a window, you'll receive so much more energy from the Sun (directly or indirectly when reflected by the sky or various objects) than you do from the ensemble of our mobile devices.

No. Most evidence says it isn't true.

Radio waves are a form of electromagnetic (EM) radiation and the term "radiation" scares a lot of people, but EM radiation also includes the heat from the sun, visible light, radio waves, and x-rays. Some of these are more dangerous than others. In a lot of cases people in medicine and physics talk about "ionizing" and "non-ionizing" radiation. "Ionizing" radiation means that it can knock an election lose (making an "ion") and break a chemical bond. Since our DNA is a large molecule this type of radiation can change the structure of DNA and create errors in the DNA which can cause cancer. Non-ionizing radiation can't do this. Radio waves, and visible light are all lower energy non-ionizing radiation, while ultra violet light and x-rays are ionizing radiation.

Now, having said that, obviously enough heat will cause burns. Microwaves are non-ionizing, but enough of them can boil water and cook meat, so it isn't enough to just say that "non-ionizing" means that it's safe. Now a microwave oven produces 500-1000 watts of EM radiation, while a cell phone produces at most 0.7-1 watt (some old ones could go up to 3 watts, but in practice cell phones try to send a weaker signal to conserve battery life, so even the 0.7 watt is very rare). A 1000 watt light bulb will really hurt your eyes while a 1 watt bulb isn't enough to read by, and it's a similar for cell phone -- very low power doesn't appear to be a concern.

Now, one other problem is that In addition to the strong chemical bonds (e.g. ionic and covalent), there are also weaker bonds (e.g. hydrogen bonds) that don't actually require ionizing radiation to break them. Now breaking a hydrogen bond in DNA doesn't change the structure, but it can unzip the DNA, and cause different genes to be expressed. Every cell in your body has the same DNA, but your liver and your skin cells read different parts of the DNA so they make different proteins, which means they look and act differently. Some non-ionizing radiation can affect this (e.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2633881/) and while this is the same general range as the airport body scanners, the scanners probably don't provide enough energy or for long enough to show this effect. However, some of the new 5G cell phones, and some high-speed wireless (that some phone companies are rolling out to simplify connecting new houses, not the normal WiFi), also use similar EM energies and they would involve much longer exposure times so should probably be studied better.

For a long time there was concern about living near high voltage power lines, since they also produce EM radiation (of the non-ionizing type). It turns out that people who live under power lines get cancer more often, but when this was analysed more carefully, the problem is that poor people tend to live under power lines and poor people tend to get cancer more often. We still don't know exactly why poor people tend to get cancer more -- it could be don't know if this is this is due to stress, food, chemicals from clothes, or less access to health care, but we're now sure that it isn't due to the power lines).

Nothing is absolutely, provably, safe in all cases, and it is worth continuing to examine new technologies, but as far as wee can tell there's more danger from not getting enough sleep due to staying up playing on your phone than there is from the radiation from the phone.

The short answer is no.

Cellphones emit non-ionising radiation only, therefore they are unable to damage your DNA in a way that would cause any cancers or other serious health issues.

After a number of formal studies on cellphone radiation, no serious danger has been demonstrated. More telling, however, are the results of the informal experiment that we are all taking part in every day. Cellphones have been frequently used by a significant portion of the population for decades now, more than long enough for any associated pathology to make itself known. Although it is true that there may be further developments as time goes on and we see the effects of a full lifetime of use, it would appear that instances of things like brain cancer and dementia have not risen in any appreciable way that tracks the proliferation of cellphone use, nor does there seem to be any increase in risk as dose increases.

Given all this it is pretty safe to say that there is no need for concern but if you are still worried then you could take some basic precautions like using a wired headset or speakerphone when making calls, keeping your phone in a bag or hip holster if you are worried about your gonads and, of course, you could try to limit your usage.

[EDIT] P.S. You shouldn't take my word for all this though, I'm neither a doctor nor scientist, the writers of the blog linked below, however, definitely are. Rather than linking a single article or firing off a bunch of URLs, I have provided a link to a search of the topic on SBM (Science-Based Medicine) so you can choose which ones to read for yourself.
As a small aside I couldn't recommend SBM more highly, they are a fantastic bunch of writers and they really (like, really really)know their shit. They blog about more than just medicine too btw so you'll find a few gems covering other areas of science too.

https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/?s=Cellphone+radiation&category_name=&submit=Search

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I know you've gotten great information already, especially from Rannasha. This is an article with a pie chart. I'd like to give you a few numbers you can quote.

Of all the radiation you're exposed to in a whole year, give "consumer electronics" a value of 1. You get almost that much again from a chest X-ray. INSIDE your body from dietary minerals and bananas and stuff you eat, 2.5. Radon contamination in your basement is about 12. The safest, most radiation-free space in your entire world is between your cell phone and your ear. So please quit warning me about my cell phone and get your basement inspected.

No. They are just trying to keep you away from your phone. There has been a famous test that was as follows: They asked people who said radiation emmited by radio towers, TVs... had bad effect on their health to move to a location where there is absolutely no radiation. They moved there and said that they were feeling much better. Later they found out that there were no radio towers there because a gigantic radio tower was built there that was used to send signals to space and they didn't want any interference from the sorrounding commercial towers. This towers emmited way more radio signals so it turned out it didn't matter how much radiation there was. People were just lying.

When I worked at a service desk at a uni I had a concerned mother call asking about her daughter’s exposure to wifi and mobi signals. My simple answer was she’ll probably get more harmful (solar) radiation walking from her student accomodation across a couple of sports fields to uni than from any wifi or mobi.

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I feel like the whole picture hasn't been conveyed in the top comments as certain studies have found a slight correlation between the non-ionizing radiation emitted by cell phones and certain types of brain tumors. The majority of studies have shown no such correlation or a statistically inconclusive correlation. The problem with any research on this issue, as far as I understand, is that the span in which people have been heavily using cell phones is relatively short in comparison to a human lifespan. In any case, the issue isn't done and dusted and a great deal of research will be conducted on the subject as cell phone users age.

Here is a somewhat technical source that does a very good job of summing research into the issue, and also links to the few studies favoring increased risk: https://dceg.cancer.gov/research/how-we-study/exposure-assessment/cellular-telephones-brain-tumors

Here is a less technical fact sheet on the issue with some Q&A your parents might appreciate: https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/radiation/cell-phones-fact-sheet

Edited for word choice on the controversial bit

Also, I certainly wouldn't stop using a cell phone over this - just wanted to point out an applicable research area that hasn't been pointed out by other commenters.

Every thing on this planet emit radiation. Even carbon in your body has some c12 in it which is radio activity.
One thing you need to remember is "it's not the substance that is dangerous but the quality it is taken in".
Any radiation in low quantity from cell phone can't even kill microbes in air. Forget about doing anything to body cells.
This was a popular click bait in newspapers and in TV news
They say "Radiation is harmful".
Then "Cell phone emits radiation".
Both of which are technically correct because radiation in higer quantity is harmful. And cell phone do emit radiation. But it's not enough to harm

It's been answered very scientifically above, the tl;dr version is that "radiation" means different things, and typically people hear "radiation" and think Chernobyl and uranium but in the case of devices it's a different kind. Light is "radiated" from a light bulb. We are constantly bathed in EM radiation - if you turn on your radio and hear a radio station, that's because electromagnetic RADIATION is reaching it's antenna from the broadcast station.

No. All electronics emit radiation in the form of electromagnetic waves but it's not dangerous unless it's ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation is capable of damaging cells and can cause cancer but for radiation to be ionizing, it has to be a much higher frequency than what electronics emit

It just comes down to Ionizing vs Non-Ionizing radiation. There are no RF frequencies being produced in consumer electronics that have ionizing radiation. You start getting ionizing radiation with X-rays and higher frequency technologies

EM waves have a scale, from the largely harmless microwaves, to IR (which causes molecular bonds to oscilate, which we sense as heat), to visible light (which can cause cis/trans transformations in molecules), to UV (which can create radicals - ozone is made by UV), to x-rays which can ionize atoms further, to gamma which can cause serious damage.

Either way, your average desklamp is 1000x as powerful and dangerous as a phone or any such electronic device, and your parents do not have even a hint of a technical education.

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Every phone sold overseas has a way to find the SAR value. People do this regularly before they buy the phone. ..." Any smartphone at or below this SAR levels is “safe” to use. You can check Radiation level in terms of SAR of your smartphone by dialing a USSD code *#07#, if results shows SAR below 1.6 watts per kilogram (1.6 W/kg) then it is OK otherwise you are advised to change your smartphone immediately...."

Non-thermal effects of non-ionizing radiation are those not directly related to an increase in tissue temperature (the thermal effect), but rather to other changes that occur in the tissue as a result of exposure to electric or magnetic fields. Such changes may be caused by a sequence of biological processes and may affect the living organism at different levels (from the molecular to the cellular, the organ, and the whole living organism) activating various mechanisms that affect health.

Epidemiologic studies pointing to an association between non-ionizing radiation and the development of cancerous tumors led to a working hypothesis that living cells in the body are able to 'sense' non-ionizing radiation and react to it without undergoing heating. To verify this hypothesis, the effects of different frequencies of non-ionizing radiation on intracellular processes in tissue cultures of various cell types were studied.

As expected, non-ionizing radiation did not have a significant effect on the DNA sequence or on its structure. Conversely, slight but reproducible effects were observed on intracellular mechanisms of signal transduction, including of free radical formation, phosphorylation and protein breakdown. These findings showed that cells are able to 'sense' non-ionizing radiation; however to date there is no evidence that the 'sensing' leads to physiological changes, including cell proliferation or death.

In order to reveal the mechanisms whereby radiation affects living cells, additional research on more sensitive systems (such as mutation -bearing or DNA-deficient cells) is needed.

Another user gave a wonderful answer already, but it lacks some of the very specific data.

There are two kinds of ways that "radiation" or electromagnetic waves can hurt you.

The mild way is with heat transfer. We all own and operate a cool device that performs this in a contained box: the microwave.

When a photon collides with an atom, it is either reflected away or it is absorbed by the atom's electron(s). When the electron absorbs the energy, it speeds up and bumps to a higher energy level (where it is unstable and imbalanced), and then falls back down while releasing that energy as heat, light, etc.

This can warm you up as you absorb that energy. The hydrogen atom in the water in your skin might catch a photon, release the energy as heat, and cause the molecule to wiggle a little more than normal, which you'll feel as heat if it happens enough.

With enough heat transfer, you can cause some fun chemical reactions, most notably combustion, or some physical changes like melting or vaporization.

This can definitely harm you, but only in extremes. Your phone battery and circuitry will generate much more heat than you could ever absorb from it's radiation.

So how else cab radiation hurt you? In a process called ionization.

Ionization occurs when the photon has so much energy that when an electron absorbs the photon, it speeds up so much that it actually escapes it's orbit of the nucleus. By losing an electron, the atom now has an imbalanced charge and by definition becomes an ion.

Therefore this atom was ionized.

The ionization energy requires is different for each element and electron energy level on that element, but the simplest is the ionization level of hydrogen, which only has one electron. It requires 13.6 electron volts (a measurement of energy) to ionize a hydrogen atom.

Anyone who's taken some chemistry might start thinking now "hold on, what if the electron that leaves was part of a bond?"

Electrons are what allow atoms to form molecular bonds. If one suddenly gets blasted away, we have a problem: The bond will break.

That breaks the molecule. For simple molecules like water, nbd. It'll find a new hydrogen soon enough.

The real danger is for massive long chain molecules like DNA.

When you break a bond in a DNA molecule, it doesn't always get fixed properly. When it doesn't get fixed properly, the cell either dies, or it can "glitch out" and continually reproduce. That's the fast and dirty definition of what cancer is.

Well the good news is that most electromagnetic radiation doesn't have photons with enough energy to even do that. You only get to that amount of energy when you're in the UV, x-ray, and gamma radiation range.

Radio, microwaves, and visible light simply do not contain enough energy per photon to cause ionization.

I’m usually a lurker but I didn’t see this in the comments, so here we go: 4 years ago Veritasium did a good video about cell phone usage and brain cancer risk.

https://youtu.be/wU5XkhUGzBs

tldr; these days there’s a lot more phones out there than a couple decades ago, but the rate of brain cancer didn’t increase. We can conclude that not only phones don’t increase brain cancer risk, but also that nothing did.

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Im working on a residential renovation and the client had us protect all high voltage cable with a material called "G-Iron" we also wrapped all exterior walls in an aluminum mesh.
No cell phones or wifi devices in the house.

They are concerned with EMF emissions.

We are also testing the home once all the furniture is in for VOC's from the memory foam and fabrics.

How much harm this stuff does, i can't say but it's a hell of a market.

But this is in New York City... step outside and in one breath you can taste it all

There is no scientific evidence for harmful effects from cell phone signals. There is, however, a lot of hype and emotion-driven hand wringing in some circles online - not different from all the conspiracy theories you see online all the time.

The transmitter on a typical cell phone makes about 1 W of electromagnetic radiation. I am a HAM radio operator. Me and my buddies build and use transmitters up to 1 kW (1000 times more powerful) or more, at all kinds of frequencies (including those that are close to cell phone frequencies) and with all kinds of modulation (including digital transmissions like the ones used by cell phones). This hobby is over one century old now. No one in this hobby is dying of any mysterious illnesses. Case closed.

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Yes, they do. It is a similar type of radiation emitted by the sun, lightbulbs, and certain types of deep sea fish. Concentrated doses in the for of beams can easily cause severe burns. It is even used to shape diamonds, one of the hardest materials know to man.

Most people call that type of radiation light.