If you're a parent of a teenager...you may be worried about what they are doing on their cell phones these days.
They talk in code, text in code, and many now send sexually explicit photos.
But there are some things you can do to set limits.
Thousands of MessagesIf you have a teenager with a cell phone, chances are you have a texter. One teen told us "everyone wants to use it and stuff. It's fun!"
Texting has become so popular among high school age teens, another teen told us he routinely sends 400 messages a day. And that's not considered to be out of the ordinary.
Laura Merritt of Verizon Wireless says teens are texting at all hours ...Even when parents think they are sleeping.
"You're seeing 5 to 6 thousand ....up to 10,000 messages a month and this is not out of the ordinary."
In addition, many teens are now "sexting" ...Sending semi nude photos of themselves. It's enough to make mom or dad panic.
What Can you Do?But there are solutions: Verizon and most other cell providers now offer parental controls, as long as your teen is on your family plan.
Laura Merritt says "we offer whats known as usage controls the the parents control that in the parents contract."
These controls allow a parent to block photos, if necessary, and to set time parameters for texting...such as not during class or after 10 pm.
Laura says with the controls, you can set their phone so it's impossible for "your child to be texting at 2 am when they should be sleeping on a school night."
Text DictionariesWant to learn more about what your teen is saying to their friends...or be able to converse better with your child via text? Verizon and other providers offer text slang dictionaries...So you can keep up on terms like:
- "wan2" (Want to)
- "xlnt" (Excellent)
- "pos" (Parents over Shoulder)
What about a teen's privacy?Most police agencies say for a teen under age 18 whose parents are paying your cell phone bill, safety and security are more important than privacy. You won't be the most popular parent for setting limits, but your child will understand when they're an adult.
As always dont waste your money. I'm John Matarese.
