Texting or Sexting – Do you Know What Your Kids are Doing?

Intercept SMS Text Messages

As sending text messages from cellular phones has become a focus in youth social life, parents, educators and advocates have grown increasingly troubled about the role of cellular phones in the sexual lives of young people. A recent survey from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project (pewinternet.org/topics/Teens.aspx) determined that four percent of cell phone owning teens between the ages of 12-17 say they have sent sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images or videos of themselves to someone else using SMS text messages. This activity is typically known as “sexting” in the current slang. Additionally, 15% say they have received these kinds of images images of someone they already know via SMS.

According to a study from market researchers The Nielsen Company (blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/under-aged-texting-usage-and-actual-cost/) American teenagers send an unimaginable average of ten SMS texts every hour that they are not in school or sleeping – and most likely a lot during class too!

By evaluating more than 40,000 monthly US mobile cellular bills, Nielsen found that American teens sent an average of an astonishing 3,146 texts each month during Q3 2009.

SMS Text Monitoring

Their younger counterparts – tweenagers – ages 9-12 years old sent an average of 1,146 text messages every month. That equates to four per hour they were in school or not sleeping. In comparison, the average number of monthly texts sent by all cell phone users collectively was just slightly above five hundred. In the fourth quarter 2009, tweenage users ages 9-12 years old increased SMS usage by eight percent and almost doubled their text message volume.

Monitor SMS Text Messages

Focus group findings show that sexting happens most often during one of three typical scenarios: The first, exchanges of images just 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 where often one person hopes to be.

Teens were interviewed and gave researchers various reasons surrounding the impulse 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 establishing a relationship. Sensitive images are also passed along to other people “… for their entertainment value, as a joke, or for fun.”

Teens also shared with researchers the pressure they feel to share sexual pictures. Not surprisingly the report also reveals that youths that are intensive users of cell phones are more likely to receive sexually suggestive images. For these young people, the phone has become such an important conduit 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 teen years mixed with regular connection via mobile 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 Teen SMS Market Will Continue to Grow

Despite some indications that per user usage has peaked (they can’t possibly use them more can they?!?) Nielsen predicts that overall SMS usage will increase 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 text extensively and as tweenagers become teenagers they are in all probability going to follow the trends of texting established by current teenagers. The average number of text messages per user has increased every year, and there is room for growth.

Mobile SMS Tracking Software

If you’ve got teenagers then you’re probably not surprised by the usage statistics. But chances are you’re also either in denial that your teenagers are involved in sexting, or you’re actively seeking solutions to the problem. While parents may fume that all the texts their teens and tweens are sending will land them in the poorhouse, Nielsen analysis indicates the average cost of a single text message is only about one penny. 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 texting.

Parental Control Software for Mobile Phones

A workable technological solution available for parents and guardians to find out what what’s going on with their kids is spyphone software. An excellent source of information on spyphone software for Parental Control is SpyMobi Spy Phone.

SMS Monitoring Software

The impact of spy phone software is evident in the massive amount of keyword searches occurring on the major search engines. Common search terms for finding “How To” information on mobile monitoring software to read SMS text messages, Call Logs and GPS Location include:

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