Teens Are Sexting

[indra]

I think everyone remembers being a teenager and spending hours on the phone - it was just a different kind of phone. I would never (in a million years!) expect my child to go get a job to pay for a phone. Kids have enough to deal with - school, homework, sports, etc. Why not let teens live a little? Life's gonna be hard enough later. So many times I hear how kids shouldn't have this, and kids shouldn't have that, but no one can ever really tell me why they shouldn't. In my opinion, as long as they are doing well in school and are responsible with their chores, etc etc, there's no reason why they shouldn't have cell phones.

I didn't. Well, I did once, but since everywhere except the tiny town (pop. a bit under 400) we lived closest to was a toll call, that single call cost about $75 (this was the 70s or early 80s). $75 we didn't have at the time. We were really tight financially at the time and I'd just blabbed away a pretty sizable chunk of our monthly income. My mum didn't pitch a major fit or anything, but I hated that I'd put her in such a bind just because one day I felt like yapping about something that could easily have waited until I saw that person. So, yeah, I never did that again.

Other than not being able to afford the cost (hell, some months I sweat over my $35 phone bill) I think the reason why many people want their kids to pay for their own phones (and other non essential stuff) or at least the minutes above a certain basic amount is keep them from having a sense of entitlement and also to teach them that if they want things they can save up for it and get it themselves instead of waiting for someone else to get it for them. I think many people know at least one person who at 30 or 40 years old is still running to mummy or daddy to bail them out of their latest fuck up because they never quite learned the difference between want and need. To people who see a cell phone for a teenager (or perhaps anyone) as a want, giving a kid one with unlimited minutes blurs that line at a time when it needs to be made more -- not less -- clear.

Of course, a person who sees a cell phone with unlimited minutes for a kid as a need or a safety device will view it more in the same category as basic food or shelter. And that is fair -- people can have differing opinions on whether or not kids should have cell phones (and also whether the minutes should be limited or unlimited).

One good thing to know in any case is that 911 calls can be made from any cell phone (provided it has a charge), even if it's not activated or there are no minutes remaining (such as on a prepaid phone). That's a good safety feature for those who don't want to (or can't afford to) give their kids cells with unlimited minutes.

 

[Liesje]

My Family Plan cell bill only runs about $100-$140 a month.

I think everyone remembers being a teenager and spending hours on the phone - it was just a different kind of phone. I would never (in a million years!) expect my child to go get a job to pay for a phone. Kids have enough to deal with - school, homework, sports, etc. Why not let teens live a little? Life's gonna be hard enough later. So many times I hear how kids shouldn't have this, and kids shouldn't have that, but no one can ever really tell me why they shouldn't. In my opinion, as long as they are doing well in school and are responsible with their chores, etc etc, there's no reason why they shouldn't have cell phones.

I agree that parents don't need to check in "24/7" but kids DO need to be checked up on - and quite often. That's where cell phones come in. If they want to spend the rest of their free time gabbing on it and texting, who cares?

Well my mom lit into me if I was spending more than half an hour or so on the phone so I don't exactly remember spending hours on the phone. Would not have enjoyed that anyway and didn't have the time.

I guess I just don't buy it that they NEED it. Sure it's cool and some people can afford it, but NEED it? How did all the rest of us turn out OK without it? Any cell phone can make an emergency call as long as it's charged. Use a pay phone, ask a friend's parent if you can use their house phone.

Again for me it's simply a matter of cost. My parents simply couldn't afford it and honestly it wasn't that big of a deal. Maybe I was the only one without a cell phone but I never noticed or had a problem. I've never liked chatting on the phone anyway, I was WITH my friends if I was not working, in school, or at gymnastics. It's not that kids shouldn't have it, but that if they don't need it there's no point in making them and their parents feel guilty about it for not doing it. That's why. Not everyone can afford it, it's not a matter of choice. I worked a few different jobs during high school and I was never overburdened for doing so. If I wanted something other than food, school supplies, and a few new outfits a year then I worked for it and paid for it, including school events and spring break. I got straight As at one of the best private schools around and I did gymnastics every night. I told my parents where I was going and if plans changed I called them from a pay phone (I carried calling cards even in college which for me was not even 5 years ago). I don't buy it that my parents should have been paying $100 a month for me to have unlimited calling when they could not even pay off medical bills. I was not pressured into getting good grades or working by my parents (quite the contrary, I had no rules or even a curfew but probably because I had shown I was responsible with my time), I knew they didn't have money for me so I never even brought it up. I'm sure there's a lot that some parents would love to do for their kids but just can't so it wasn't worth throwing a fit about. I did what I needed to do to have money for the mall, movies, spring break, trendy clothes, gas for rides, and and honestly I never felt that life was "tough" for me, but I never felt entitled to a lot of the things some people have. Sometimes I had to give my friends a reality check if they wanted to hang out at a really expensive place or whatever but for the most part I kept up even having to work for my spending money.

To me $140 a month for a phone is outrageous, but I am on the phone almost all day at work. I come home and the LAST thing I'm going to do is pick up a phone. I don't even answer my cell unless it's a call I'm expecting or its a family member. My cell is a work phone anyway, I don't have a personal phone or house phone and yet anytime there's been an emergency or someone has gotten sick or died, we've known about it in time.

 

[beegee]

If my daughter was in any kind of trouble outside of this house I would much rather she had a cell phone with unlimited minutes in her pocket than a couple of quarters. It's that simple.

 

[WildHoneyAlways]

As a teacher I can't stand cell phones. Can't. Stand. Them. I take one away at least every day. A couple years ago I caught a male student taking a picture of the butt of the girl sitting in front of him. As it turns out he was a "collector" of sorts. There were at least 30 other pictures like the one I caught him taking stored on his phone. Girls walking down the hallway, girls at the board in math class, girls sitting in chairs. . .gross.

When his dean went through the phone with him she found semi-naked and naked pictures as well. As it turns out he and his friends had been texting these images to each other. Ug.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

i think kids today are no different than kids 10, 20, or 30 years ago. the difference is that they have different tools. and if the kids of 30 years ago had these same tools -- and same access to information -- we'd see much the same thing.

one thing that hasn't changed is that anyone who has stopped being a teenager frets and worries about the "kids today" and how much more innocent said person was when they were a teenager, despite the facts that, 1) you only hear the hype, the bad stuff, 2) the "kids today" will probably say the same thing when they grow up, 3) most kids turn out just fine. in fact, despite the recent small uptick in teen pregnancy in some states, by most measurable standards, "kids today" are actually doing better than kids were 20 or 30 years ago.

i only want to say two things... i agree with this, and i was born 10 years too early. i'll show you mine if you show me yours would have been so much easier.

 

[dazzlingamy]

This hits a little close to home for me a good friend of mine took pics of him and his girlfriend which were on her phone, her dad found them and went straight to the police. My friend was charged with soliciting a minor for pornographic images and now has a criminal record of child pornography on his record for the rest of his life all because his girlfriend was 15 and he was 17. The law is very black and white on this, especially with males.

You just have to be so careful with things like this. Because it can easily head in a not so funny and innocent way.