Tween Sexting

A friend called me sounding frantic because she just read a very disturbing sexting exchange on her 11 year old daughter’s iPhone with a 14 year old boy. Up to that time, my friend allowed her daughter free reign of her own cell phone activities. 

Remember when you were a young teen? Curious, adventurous, brave and naive, especially naive. In today’s day and age, children are bombarded with technologies beyond their maturity with cell phones being the most desired item. According to a study by C&R Research, 60 percent of tweens (ages 10-14) own a cell phone and researchers expect this trend to increase due to marketing strategies that target children.

There are documented dangers of child cell phone usage. Sexting is a reality in a child’s cell phone world. What is sexting? Sexting is inappropriate communication of sexual nature via text messaging, picture messaging (sometimes called photo messaging) and voice calls. It has been evidenced that predators use these operations to lure unsuspecting children to perform inappropriate interactions and worse, lure children into a private face-to-face meeting.

Parents have a responsibility for the safety and conduct of their children’s cell phone use. Parents should be clear with their child on specific boundaries of their cell phone activity. As much as parents want to trust their child, they still need monitoring. Some parents may feel that they are invading their child’s privacy. The best way to avoid mixed opinions is to clearly state what the purpose of the cell phone is, what conduct is expected, warnings about communicating with people they don’t know and lastly, you have the parental responsibility to randomly check through their cell phone. Remember parents, you pay the bill and can suspend service if any of the conditions are broken.

Any inappropriate or dangerous findings, should be reported immediately to police authorities.