Friday, December 12, 2008

Teenagers: Asking for help with on-line phone account not recommended

Dear Teenagers,

Think twice before asking your parents how to get to the on-line photo album associated with your phone. It will prompt your mom to notice how many minutes you have used and messages you have sent. This in turn may induce her to look at the actual calls and messages and then notice that twice in the past week you were up all night on the phone AND that you apparently manage to text message during school every single day.

You don't want your parents to notice this because they may threaten things like taking away your phone at night or even worse paying Veriz*n $5/month so that you can't text at night or at school. And just to add insult to injury, they will deduct the $5/month from your allowance.

******

Dear Parents,

I recommend checking your children's phone usage regularly.

****

Dear Readers,

Apparently Gary and his most recent girlfriend have made up.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:03 PM

    Im curious as to your thoughts on privacy with teens. Do you feel its okay to read the texts or emails?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not that I was asked but the rule in our house is that at any given moment I can take the phone, review text messages, pictures, phone calls, address books, etc. This works best in the middle of texting.

    It's not to abuse their privacy but rather to protect them. We've gone through the same things you have with Gary and the usage/pictures, and safety has been an issue in the past.

    Also, our provider does detail incoming and outgoing calls online, so I can see any deleted information as well.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hahahah! I wish I could have been a fly on the wall watching that conversation!

    Good for you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. MJ,

    I have never had a reason to read text messages or emails. If I thought they were getting themselves into trouble with it I would be more likely to cut off access than read the messages.

    If I felt that I needed to invade their privacy in order to keep them safe I probably would. I would be very hesitant to do so though.

    ReplyDelete

Comments will be open for a little while, then I will be shutting them off. The blog will stay, but I do not want either to moderate comments or leave the blog available to spammers.