News, Advice, and Tips for Parenting Teenagers

I think the cell phone issue with kids is getting way out of control. Most parents just get an unlimited family plan so they don't have to whine at their kids to get their noses out of their phone. I recently watched a teenage girl at Disney World so involved in her phone that she was ignoring the street performer that her family was enjoying. I finally found a SAFE cell phone provider for my daughter which has excellent FREE on-line parental controls. You can also limit or allow certain phone numbers for calling and texting. If you use the controls, you don't have to worry about sexting, bulling, strangers, etc. You can also set time of day limits where the phone cannot be used during school hours except to call specific numbers such as family members, 911, etc. This limits all use during school hours. I love it and feel very safe that my daughter has a phone for emergencies, etc., yet I can keep her safe with the parental controls.

My teen's school has a very strict "no cell phone" policy. Meaning, if a phone is seen, or heard by a staff member it is immediately confiscated. The parent then has to visit the school to retrive the phone. That doesn't mean texting in class never occurs, but it does drastically cut down on the issue. This issue is also extremely dangerous during state standardized testing. If a cell phone is seen or heard during testing it can cost the district thousands of dollars, as well as retesting all the students in that class and the student caught with the phone can be exempt from the testing completly. Knowing the severity of the consequences can again, deter the students from bringing phones to school during testing.

I remember passing notes in class and I can imagine what a field day I would've had with texting. I'm curious if teachers appreciate the amount of cheating that can go on if people can silently communicate in a classroom with each other.