Text messaging is the primary method that most children use to stay in contact with their friends. It enables them to “talk” to other people without speaking. But not only can this lead to using their cell phones at inappropriate times, it can also be a danger to them.
- Unwanted charges. A child’s cellular telephone can incur extra charges in two ways:
- Spam messages. Since some cellular service providers charge for incoming messages, spam messages can tack on extra charges to a child’s bill. Spammers use autodialing to deliver their messages automatically. This method, even though it costs them money, has proven to be much more successful than spam email. The spammers can obtain lists of valid cell numbers, which are often gleaned from the IM services used by children to keep their lines continually open for text messaging.
- Reverse charging. Some cell phone companies provide a service that lets other people send you messages, and bill you for the fees that they would normally have to pay to make the call. Reversing the charges has been used for decades – for example, to allow students to call home to their parents and have them pay for the cost of the call. Spammers can use reverse charging in an insidious manner. They will call, and ask the child to enter a certain telephone number to get a “free” gift. However, placing the call automatically subscribes them to a reverse-charge service. This can cause them to be billed for hundreds of dollars, before they or their parents realize that they’ve been scammed.
- Child bullying. Texting can be used by the school bully to send threatening messages to your child. Even if the child has the gumption to report this to a parent or school authority, the only effective solution to the problem is to call the police.
- Child predators. The most serious problem exacerbated by texting is the use of text messenging by child predators. Since no voices are heard by the child in a text message, an adult can masquerade as a young child and, over time, become a “friend”. Eventually, a meeting may be arranged, and from that point on, your child may be subjected to psychological or even physical molestation.
What can be done to help protect your children against these dangers of texting? You should, of course, try to teach your child about what could happen if they do not use proper caution in receiving text messages over their cell phone.
But even then, children will be children – they may easily become distracted, and forget all that you told them. And in the case of child bullies, there may be nothing they can do to prevent the problem.
Even though it might seem at first to be a violation of your child’s privacy, a wise precaution would be to oversee their texting activity. There are cell phone monitoring services available that will enable you to keep tabs on your child’s activities, and set your mind to rest about their safety.
By Chad Melius
