Cellphone safety

There are entertainment “thumb jocks” (videogamers) and then there are the communications ones, including cellphone texters at your house. Teens love texting, I think partly because of the extra privacy this silent form of communication affords them and partly because it can be 24x7 (see “Teen dating abuse”). They also love the growing number of features cellphones have, so they can snap and share photos, swap tunes and videos, customize with skins and ringtones, access social-networking profiles, and (with the GPS technology that new phones have) pinpoint their fellow texters’ physical locations - as well as text and talk with each other. More and more, reports Larry Magid in CBSNEWS.com, a cellphone is “really a personal computer for your pocket with all the benefits and dangers of PCs.” Therein lies the heads-up for parents, and Larry – who is also publisher of SafeKids.com and my co-director at BlogSafety.com – offers, in this article, the full complement of parental considerations where young cellphone users are concerned, from costs to carriers to content.