Protect Your Kids! Cell Phones and Predators

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

14 Jan 2008 08:42 AM

Cell phones provide an easy path to your child from sexual predators. You should know how to protect them.

Most parents know all about children, sexual predators and the Internet. We protect our children by installing firewalls and monitoring software and blocking software. We keep the computer in a communal area of the house and watch our kids when they are online. We think that we have done everything we can to create a wall between predators and our kids. But one think we fail to do, by the thousands, is to protect them from predators getting in through their cell phones.

Cell phone and text messaging devices are usually the very thing that parents purchase for their children so they can keep in touch and keep them safe. But unfortunately, they are also a way for predators to keep in touch as well.

The news is filled with stories of how sexual predators, usually adults that children know, use cell phone technology to their advantage, victimizing children. A recent case is playing out right here in Pennsylvania. A 26-year-old Physical Education teacher is accused of having sex with a 14-year old student. And cell phone calls and text messaging played a major role in the sexual abuse of this minor.

How do the predators get in? Predators reach your kids using a method called "grooming." They take their time and relate to kids on their level, calling the cell phone or sending dozens of text messages a day, luring the kids into a false friendship that eventually leads to abuse.

What can you do about this? Program the cell phone to only allow calls to and from parents, and to 911. Only allow texting to take place with parents and siblings. Talk to your kids about predators and the many ways that they may try to lure your kids.

Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.

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Learn more about Mary Ann Romans

Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat.

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BentSpoon (66) 22 Dec 2008 12:09 PM

While your concern in this area is commendable, a recent study by the Pew Internet Study disproves the myth you are implicitly perpetuating here that cell phones open up yet another door for the exploitation of children. The study finds that the children most at risk through channels like cell phones and virtual worlds and IMing and other "digital" tools are the same children who are at risk even without access to those tools. In other words children are at no more risk today with things like cell phones than they were when we were kids and our parents taught us to not accept candy from strangers.

Every family needs to make the choice for how much technology is enough or too much for their own family. Interesting, however, were the results of research for a book I just published (IMHO (http://www.lulu.com/content/4427834)) that show how kids have flocked to cell phones and other Internet avenues because we have restricted their terrestrial travel to such a degree that they have no outlets for figuring out how to become autonomous creatures: an element of human development as important as any.

It's a difficult balance we as parents have to find between comfort with a technology and understanding the role we've played in actually pushing our children to leveraging those technologies for reasons that are actually as innocent as the neighborhood-wide / unsupervised explorations we were allowed to do as kids.

Mary Ann Romans (26876) 22 Dec 2008 01:20 PM

Thank you for your comment! While I agree with you about the difficulty parents have presenting and providing balance in their guidance of their children, I stand by my opinion that cell phones can pose a threat to children. I am familiar with three local cases, one with family friends that involved grooming through the use of cell phones.