News, Advice, and Tips for Parenting Teenagers

Experts on adolescent psychology are concerned about high-profile cases of teenagers murdering their parents or guardians after the adults took away the teens' cellphones or video games.

• After her grandmother confiscated her cellphone, 14-year-old Jermea Simmons set fire to her family's home in Buffalo, NY, as 10 family members slept inside. Jermea's grandfather died in the fire; the others escaped.
• In Adrian, Mich., 17-eyar-old Marshall Sosby shot his parents in after an argument about the amount of minutes he had run up on a cellphone while talking to an out-of-state girlfriend.
• Daniel Petric, age 17, killed his mother and shot his father in the face when they took away his Halo 3 video game. His father is a pastor in Wellington, OH.

Some experts on teenagers and their use of media explain this kind of violence in terms of this generation's tendency to build their lives around technology. When their technology goes away, they feel as if their lives have been taken away too.

Parry Aftab, an Internet lawyer and expert on technology, said many children are sleeping with their cellphones.

"It's actually a physical addiction," she said. "They have an adrenaline hit when they get a new text message. When this is taken away, some kids will react violently."

Labels: violence, technology, aggression

Posted By: Aspen Education Group