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We didn't have cell phones when I was that age and we grew up just as safe, and fine. I know parents feel they 'need' to suddenly be in 100% contact with their kid, in case of emergency, or whatever, but again, cell phones are relatively a new thing, and we all grew up fine without them. Maybe hold off on giving kids their own phone until the same age they're allowed to kill people by driving a car, (16) or joining the military to potentially kill other people and/or get killed (18). If they're mentally able to handle those possible outcomes, they should theoretically be able to handle the pressure of sexting gone wrong. Theoretically.
ahh, the opinion of a male who is, alas, not a parent.
Btw, if you're against kids sexting, whatever ya do, don't sniff around too much on Stickam. That kinda thing is rampant on there, and those are full motion (webcams).
Do you not report that? (if they are underage)
I have to agree with Dogg though that kids shouldn't have cam's on their phones. But nowadays it's hard to find one on your plan that doesn't have one. (However they do make VERY basic cell phones for kids with the design directly related to the purpose: emergency only.) Which makes it equally important to have a talk with the kids, even if they are not taking pictures of themselves, like SM said yesterday-they might not see the harm in being sent one, or FWD-ing it.
My kid will have a cell phone when he goes to kindergarten with prepaid minutes to be used for emergencies or urgent matters, and with the emergency GPS locator turned ON. The world is not the same anymore. You hear sick and twisted things happening to young children every day. You can't be naive about that.
As far as teens who use cell phones to talk and text with their friends... Something my parents did with my siblings is they confiscated the cell phone at night and kept it in their room--also went through it probably.
If it were me, and i had concerns about my teen doing that sort of thing even after we had chats about it-i would get them the most basic kind of cell phone that can't receive pics and dont' have a texting plan, so you know when they are because you get charged for it--then they get punished--unless it was an urgent text to you the parent.
And no a 16 yr old doesn't weigh consequences well enough yet (the prefrontal cortex is not fully developed yet). They would not be able to handle the outcome of sexting-gone-wrong...that is Jail, dogg. More on that, but i have a meeting.