When I send my teen clients an email, it can take days or weeks before I hear back from them. When I send a text . . . there’s an almost immediate response. Texting has thus become a natural way to communicate in my practice. This recent article discusses the prevalence of cell phones and the serious issue of sexting. However, I have shared with my students another serious feature of cell phones that every parent should know about and every student should change in their settings.

75% of children between the ages of 12 and 17 have cell phones. Of that number, 72% send an average of 1,500 text messages a month. Older teenage girls send 38% more texts and boys of the same age group.And according to an abcnews.com article by Cristen Conger, “As of 2009, 20 percent of kids between six and 11 years old had a cell phone, according to a Mediamark survey. Moreover, cell phone ownership has increased most dramatically over the past five years -– 80.5 percent -– among ten- to 11-year olds.”The main concern for parents of cell phone wielding students is “sexting.” Sexting is a term used for sending or receiving an inappropriate or explicit message, picture or video. A survey conducted by SpectorSoft, a company that develops monitoring products for Computer, Internet and mobile phone users in business, education, government, and homes, indicated that 49% of parents polled said their children had received a sext message or picture, and that 21% had been a victim.

via Safe Cell Phone Use Requires Vigilance from Parents | EducationNews.org.

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