Children with cell phones

As promised, I have something to say about children with cell phones.

First of all, what the hell did our parents do with out their own or one for us???

I really don’t think that it is appropriate for a child in school (elementary, middle) to have a cell phone. And a $300 + phone at that? Shoot. My momma would’a laughed in my face.

What are the reasons y’all are giving them to kids anyway? Here I will list why your crap reasons are just that: C R A P.

• To stay in touch: loosely translates (in my opinion) to I want to be able to call them and get an answer. I say PSH! Big load of crap. Those elementary and middle school age kids are exactly where they should be: school. And last I heard (times change though) was there is (in most cases) a no cell phone/ electronic devises allowed at school.
• Family bonding? Are you fuckin joking? What ever happened to movie night or dinner table talks?
• Teaches Responsibility: Yeah, because with my first cell phone I was SOOOO responsible, with the racking up the minuets and the downloading of the cool ring tones. And with today’s cell phones, there is also that huge DATA charge.
• In case of an emergency: OK i will slightly concede with this one, but when I was a kid, my momma always made sure that we had two quarters to call her with.

So I under stand the need for an older child to have a cell phone, with limitations. As I mentioned before, I worked for a major cell company and I know there are ways to limit usage, like say, 12 am texts? Gone! Oh daddy doesn’t like lill miss’ new boyfriend? That is a now RESTRICTED number that can not be called.

The one thing parents need to understand is although you think you are in control, you are not. I over heard a man telling his girlfriend that if he really wanted to, he could check in to her daughters texts and read them all. All he had to do was call the company. Heres the thing: These company’s do not have this large room being manned watching all incoming and out going texts waiting for a concerned parent to call and ask to have a copy of all the messages being sent to and from a number on their account. At best they have record three (yes 3) days back and you need a court order. Those people answering the phones at customer service can not even see them.

 

So, if you are going to trust your kid with a phone, I think it would be mighty wise to learn everything available to you before you take the plunge. There is a chaperone service, a Disney phone that only has preset numbers. And there are parental controls.

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