Jordan's Blog

Extremely dangerous game, not only for their future in finding a job and possibly having their picture posted on the Internet, but these children obviously do know the dangers of criminals looking for them. In mature children should not own cell phones with picture capabilities or have texting. Again, it is parents making poor judgements about their children's welfare and safety. They wonder why children are disappearing from the face of the earth, kidnappings and being sold as a sex slave is not inconceivable, is it?

Once again, this comes down to parenting and the time for parents to step up to the plate. Call it an invasion of privacy, say I don't trust my child/children, or that they weren't mature enough, but when we gave our children cell phones, strict guidelines were put on usage of the phone. We have access to the phones at any time. At no time will there be any passwords or ways to lock them for privacy reasons. We find something unacceptable, you're done, it's gone. Pretty cut and dry if you ask me. They both got their first cell phones at age 11. 5 and 1 year later, we've had no problems. Our theory is that if you're doing nothing wrong, and you have nothing to hide, then there will be no reason for us not to take a look, read your text messages, etc. Vision, you make a good point. Why does society wonder how awful things happen to young people when so many go unsupervised. And all the excuses in the world do not make up for parents being absent because they are busy with their own lives. To those parents I say "Maybe you should have reconsidered having children"

BeStrong, my solution to that is this: If you don't want your teen sexting, then don't allow them to have text message capability in the first place. If you don't want them sexting, don't give them a cell phone with a camera on it.

I am vometing in my mouth as I type this but I have to agree with mnaines on this one.

I agree DogJ and Redholtz!

And for those of you who feel you're child just has to have a phone (we got along fine without them), you can now pay a little extra a month and restrict who your child can text/call to just you and family members and 911.

Unfortunately some parents show almost as much lack of discretion as thier children when it comes to the level of "freedom" they give to thier children (particularly pre and early teens).

If I had a child who needed a cell phone, I definitely wouldn't get them one with a camera function (or allow them use of a digital camera or computer at home without supervision). A few years ago there was a cell phone on the market that only had three buttons, besides the call and hang up ones. One was pre-programmed with 9-11 and the other two you (the parent) programmed by either using your computer or sending a message via another cell phone to your service provider. The targeted marketing group was parents with younger children who wanted to be able to contact thier children, and to limit who the child could call. Maybe this is what parents need to be looking at instead of being concerned with what Johnny and Suzie are texting or photo sharing with each other.

I'm just hoping I receive some "wrong number's" from some college girl's....mmmmm LOL...

Seriously, I agree with originalmo_trucker....there's so so many parent's out there that have "0" control over their kid's.....alot of them can't even get their kid's to phone home if they're going to be late....let alone dictate what they do with their phone's.....but good luck tryin'....!!!

Jturner, I feel "hard lessons" are better in this case, because that is the only way people are really going to learn. I was raised by parents who felt the same way, with my father saying things like "You wanna stick your finger in that light socket, go right ahead. Hurts don't it? Maybe you won't do it again next time." I feel the same way about the idiots who think they own the road - let them drive like idiots...When they crash, it becomes an "I told you so" moment, and if that does not teach them to drive carefully, then nothing ever will.

What has had me was the parents who complained about the teachers or administrators who have caught students "sexting". I'm sorry but, DUHHH! If I was a teacher and one of my students was passing around a cell phone showing off a message or photo I would want to see what they had, and admonish them about it. (Even if all it had to do with was thier use of a cell phone during school hours.) Afterall, I can recall my fair share of the teacher taking a "pass it on" note away from myself or one of my classmates and then getting on to us about it. Technology might change, but people never do.