If I was dumb enough to put the use on a monthly bill - yes. If Parent A gets a bill that says Dakota sent 450 texts last month and is wondering what the hell is going on, blame Dakota, not Parent A.

i have a friend whose wife was having her 30th bday party at the barn in columbus. she is also 5 mos pregnant so she couldnt drink. the bar was crowded and there were also probably 50 people or so with our group. my buddy ended up being the drunkest guy there. probably did 12 shots or so and this is not bs. he is a borderline alcaholic and former bartender. she had to take him home about 1230 because he was bumping in to everyone and in general too drunk to be at the bar. she was livid. the next day he text our other friend and was like "Dont Ever Get Married" then he took a nap and the friend was texting him back, but instead it was the wife who picked up the phone and saw the messages....needless to say he was in the doghouse for about a week.

Manhattan Buckeye;740044 wrote:If I was dumb enough to put the use on a monthly bill - yes. If Parent A gets a bill that says Dakota sent 450 texts last month and is wondering what the hell is going on, blame Dakota, not Parent A.

450 texts a month? Oh no, the kid is a trouble maker! Please, usage doesn't mean anything.

You're okay with invasion of privacy as long as the parent is paying the bills. Yeah, because a 14 year old is going to have the means to pay for his own cell phone bill, and using the whole "I pay the bills around here" is NOT an excuse to snoop through your kid's shit. You're the parent, you better be paying the bills, now whether you elect to give them a cell phone is a personal choice, but that doesn't mean you have the "right and responsibility" to look through it(Facebook is another story because that's public info).

It has never happened to me simply because I only text a few people. I have bad eyesight and large fingers, it is only a matter of time.

"You're okay with invasion of privacy as long as the parent is paying the bills. Yeah, because a 14 year old is going to have the means to pay for his own cell phone bill,"

Fine, then the 14 year old doesn't get their own cell. BFD. Are you purposely trolling today, between this and the WNBA thread you are really sounding dull, and you can take that to the bank.

Manhattan Buckeye;740052 wrote:"You're okay with invasion of privacy as long as the parent is paying the bills. Yeah, because a 14 year old is going to have the means to pay for his own cell phone bill,"

Fine, then the 14 year old doesn't get their own cell. BFD. Are you purposely trolling today, between this and the WNBA thread you are really sounding dull, and you can take that to the bank.

No, I'm not trolling.

I don't have a problem with the 14 year old not getting a cell phone, I do think its hilarious that that somehow gives the right to invade the privacy of your children in the guise of "being a good parent". LOL

i dont have children but if i did i would base the decision to snoop on their cellphone on the amount of trust and responsibility they display at home and at school. if they are straight a's and not getting suspended. come and go on time respecting the boundaries, then why would i snoop..however if they give me a reason too then i would. i would explain this when they got the phone so that if they are smart they would delete inapproptiate material. if they arent smart enough to do that then they deserve what they get if i look in their phone and find inappropriate material.

sleeper;740031 wrote:Oh great, the typo police are out. Get a life.



I see we have a lot of these "parent of the year" types. LOL Your kids will hate you too, belee dat.

I'm actually part of the "OSU is a superior place to receive an education" task force. We enforce that statements accuracy ...so we're going to need you to try harder or quit claiming OSU.

Please hide your diploma until further notice.

Never ...

sleeper;740047 wrote:...

You're okay with invasion of privacy as long as the parent is paying the bills. ....

It's not their privacy that's being invaded. They are communicating on my device, my line that I have provided to them in the above scenario. In addition I as a parent have an obligation to make sure that they are doing so in a manner that's acceptable.

In the interest of full disclosure, this is my opinion on the above described scenario as opposed to an actual occurrence in my home.

Con_Alma;740075 wrote:It's not their privacy that's being invaded. They are communicating on my device, my line that I have provided to them in the above scenario. In addition I as a parent have an obligation to make sure that they are doing so in a manner that's acceptable.

In the interest of full disclosure, this is my opinion on the above described scenario as opposed to an actual occurrence in my home.

Agreed. My daughter is 13 and she knows I can and will read her txt messages whenever I feel like it.

Yeah I would have no problems with a parent reading the text messages of their children...especially when they are that young.

PS why do 13 year olds even have cell phones? I didn't have one until I was 19. I don't think anyone needs one until they start driving....but even then I am not so sure. I managed it for 3 years without one and I would have a hard time believing they wouldn't be texting while driving.


As for the topic, I have accidentally sent a couple message to the wrong people but it was never a big deal.

For you parents who want to keep even closer tabs on your kids...there is an application available for Android designed for this. You download the app on to your kid's phone, and every time they send or receive a text message, it is forwarded to your phone. They have no idea it happens, and the application doesn't show up in the app tray...so they don't even have to know that the application is on their phone.

Hmm. Texting wasn't really big when I was 13/14. But IM was. I would have been very upset with my parents if they had gone through and read my conversations on there. Not necessarily because I had anything to hide, I was a good kid, but I would just feel like my space was being violated. I hate to agree with Sleeper, but I don't think when I'm a parent that I will be going through their messages. Too far.

sleeper;740054 wrote:
I don't have a problem with the 14 year old not getting a cell phone, I do think its hilarious that that somehow gives the right to invade the privacy of your children in the guise of "being a good parent". LOL

It's a balance. As a parent, I'm legally responsible for my 14-year-old's actions - if they really screw up, I'm responsible - legally, financially, and morally. On the other hand, you have to let them make a few mistakes on their own.

We never snooped, or conducted periodic searches of rooms or cell phone messages. We did, however, maintain the policy that we had full right to do so, but that we wouldn't invoke said policy unless we had reason to believe that something illegal, immoral, or fattening was going on. Only had to do this once - as it turned out, it was definitely the right thing to have done.

Fab4Runner;740115 wrote:...
PS why do 13 year olds even have cell phones?...

Why indeed. If a parent wants them to have one so be it.

My children do not nor do I. If they want one they can get one when they are able.

Fab4Runner;740115 wrote:...
PS why do 13 year olds even have cell phones?...

Why indeed. If a parent wants them to have one so be it.

My children do not nor do I. If they want one they can get one when they are able.

Gblock;740046 wrote:i have a friend whose wife was having her 30th bday party at the barn in columbus. she is also 5 mos pregnant so she couldnt drink. the bar was crowded and there were also probably 50 people or so with our group. my buddy ended up being the drunkest guy there. probably did 12 shots or so and this is not bs. he is a borderline alcaholic and former bartender. she had to take him home about 1230 because he was bumping in to everyone and in general too drunk to be at the bar. she was livid. the next day he text our other friend and was like "Dont Ever Get Married" then he took a nap and the friend was texting him back, but instead it was the wife who picked up the phone and saw the messages....needless to say he was in the doghouse for about a week.

Sounds like she knows how to pick them.

As far as parents reading the messages of their children, I think it depends on the situation. If you do it every time their phone is left behind, that is creepy and the same as eavesdropping on a conversation on a land line. Shows that you don't trust your children. However, if you suspect something might be up, I see no problem with checking messages.

As one poster said, his daughter knows he could check her messages and Facebook, but he hasn't. I think if you let your child know that the possibility is there, they will do the right thing.

..a very reasonable approach dwccrew.

dwccrew;740173 wrote:Sounds like she knows how to pick them.

As far as parents reading the messages of their children, I think it depends on the situation. If you do it every time their phone is left behind, that is creepy and the same as eavesdropping on a conversation on a land line. Shows that you don't trust your children. However, if you suspect something might be up, I see no problem with checking messages.

As one poster said, his daughter knows he could check her messages and Facebook, but he hasn't. I think if you let your child know that the possibility is there, they will do the right thing.

Or she will just send or sex messages privately, and make sure she deletes everything from her "send" folder, and delete's the boy's response immediately.

like_that;740179 wrote:Or she will just send or sex messages privately, and make sure she deletes everything from her "send" folder, and delete's the boy's response immediately.

That can be found out and if it was she would have broken the trust and lost the privilege of use.

Con_Alma;740184 wrote:That can be found out and if it was she would have broken the trust and lost the privilege of use.

How can that be found out if she deletes the messages right away?

like_that;740179 wrote:Or she will just send or sex messages privately, and make sure she deletes everything from her "send" folder, and delete's the boy's response immediately.

I'm pretty sure you have to permanently delete texts by signing on the internet and erasing them. Just because they are off your phone doesn't mean anything. You can request them from the cell company. As Con Alma said, that can be found out.

As far as FB, I don't know because I've never used in this fashion, but I'm sure there is parental controls on a child's FB page.

siding with sleeper on this one...give your kids some privacy, let them make mistakes, its part of growing up. Trust me, I've grew up with people who had super strict parents....it usually makes the kid go crazy once they finally get away from home. Its not hard to delete text messages either. They will find ways to sneak around and they will more than likely be doing much more worse stuff than they would if you werent nibbing through every form of communication in their life. If they are talking on the house phone, do you pick up another line and listen in on their conversation too? LOL

like_that;740189 wrote:How can that be found out if she deletes the messages right away?

Online your account shows every incoming and outgoing message to and from number. Does it not? If she's deleting texts that are no longer in her phone yet are shown on the account then there's a reason she's deleting them. Trust gone and so is the phone.