Sexting – Do Parents Even Know About This?
Texting or Sexting – Do you Know What Your Kids are Doing?
Intercept SMS Text Messages
As sending text messages from cell phones has become a focus in teen social life, parents, educators and advocates have grown increasingly troubled about the role of mobile phones in the sexual lives of young people. A recent research study from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project (pewinternet.org/topics/Teens.aspx) determined that 4% of mobile phone using youths between the ages of 12-17 say they have sent sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images or videos of themselves to other people via SMS text messages. This practice is commonly known as “sexting” in the current slang. Additionally, fifteen percent say they have received such images of someone they actually know by way of SMS.
According to a study from marketing research firm The Nielsen Company (blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/under-aged-texting-usage-and-actual-cost/) American young people send an undreamed of average of ten SMS texts every hour that they are not in school or sleeping – and probably a lot during school too!
By studying over than 40,000 monthly US mobile mobile bills, Nielsen concluded that American teens sent an average of an astonishing 3,146 text messages every month during Q3 2009.
SMS Text Monitoring
Their younger counterparts – tweenagers – from age 9 to 12 sent about 1,100 texts each month. That equates to four every hour they were in school or not sleeping. To put that in perspective, the average number of monthly texts sent by all cell phone users combined was a little more than five hundred. In the fourth quarter 2009, tweenage users from age 9 to 12 increased messaging usage by 8% and almost doubled their text message volume.
Monitor SMS Text Messages
Focus group findings show that sexting happens most often during one of three specific scenarios: The first, exchanges of images only between two romantic partners;
the next, lists exchanges between partners that are then shared with other people; followed by, exchanges between people who are not yet in a relationship, but with one person hoping there will be one.
Teenagers were interviewed and gave Amanda Lenhart, Senior Research Specialist and author of the report various reasons behind the motivation to get involved with sexting. These included the researcher’s interpretation that “…sexually suggestive images had become a form of relationship currency,”; that sexting images “… are shared as a part of or instead of sexual activity,” and that SMS text message sexting is a way of starting or maintaining a relationship. Sensitive images are also passed along to other people “… for their entertainment value, as a joke, or for fun.”
Teenagers also shared with researchers the pressure they feel to share these types of pictures. Not surprisingly the report revealed that young people that are intensive users of mobile phones are more likely to to be sent inappropriate images. For these young people, the phone has become such a common means for communication and content of all kinds that turning it off is unlikely.
Perfect Storm Sexting meets Parental Control
The combination of risk-taking and sexual exploration during the teenage years mixed with constant connection using cell phones and other mobile devices “…creates a ‘perfect storm’ for sexting,” said Pew’s Amanda Lenhart. “Teenagers have always grappled with issues around sex and relationships, but their coming-of-age mistakes and transgressions have never been so easily transmitted and archived for others to see.”
The Youth Text Market Will Continue to Grow
Despite the indications that per user usage has peaked (they can’t possibly use them more can they?!?) Nielsen forecasts that overall text message usage will grow as the avid user population ages and entices the older generations to text with them in order to keep in contact with them. Current SMS users are expected to continue to use texting extensively and as tweenagers become teenagers they are in all probability going to follow the trends of texting established by current teenagers. The number of text messages sent per capita has grown every year and should continue.
Mobile SMS Tracking Software
If you’ve got teenagers then you’re probably not shocked by the usage numbers. In all probability most parents don’t believe their children are involved with sexting, or they are looking for ways to find out. While parents may fume that all the texts their teens and tweens are sending are going to break the bank, Nielsen analysis indicates the average cost of a single text message is just one cent. The real issue affecting families is not so much how often teens use their phones but has more to do with how they use their phones, and when they are using them.
Parental Control Software for Cell Phones
A workable technological solution available for parents and guardians to discover what what’s going on with their children is spyphone software. An excellent source of information on spyphone software for Parental Control is SpyMobi Spy Phone.
SMS Monitoring Software
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