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

By: Phone Beagle


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Intercept SMS Text Messages

As texting from cell phones has become a focus in teen social life, parents, educators and advocates have grown increasingly anxious about the role of cellular phones in the sexual lives of teens. A recent survey from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project (pewinternet.org/topics/Teens.aspx) concluded 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 text messaging. This activity is commonly referred to "sexting" in today's vernacular. Additionally, fifteen percent say they have received such images of someone they already know by way of text message .

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 teenagers send an inconceivable average of 10 SMS text messages every hour that they are not in school or sleeping - and most likely a lot during school too!

By studying over than 40,000 monthly US mobile telecom bills, Nielsen found that American teenagers sent an average of an astonishing 3,146 texts every month during Q3 2009.

SMS Text Monitoring

Their younger counterparts - tweenagers - aged nine to twelve sent an average of 1,146 texts every month. That that averages out to about four every hour they were in school or not sleeping. To put that in perspective, the average number of monthly texts sent by all mobile users collectively was a little more than 500. In the fourth quarter 2009, tweenage users ages 9-12 years old increased text usage by 8% and almost doubled their text message volume.

Monitor SMS Text Messages

Focus group findings show that sending provocative images happens most often under one of three different 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.

Teens were interviewed and gave Amanda Lenhart, Senior Research Specialist and author of the report a variety of reasons surrounding the motivation to participate in 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."

Teenagers also described to researchers the peer pressure to share sexual images. Not surprisingly the report also reveals that young people that are intensive users of cellular phones are more likely to receive inappropriate images. For these youths, the phone has become such a common means for communication and content of all kinds that doing without it is nearly unthinkable.

Perfect Storm Sexting meets Parental Control

The desire for risk-taking and sexual exploration during the teenage years mixed with regular connection via cellular 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 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 demographic ages and entices the older generations to text with them in order to keep in contact with them. Existing SMS users are expected to continue to text extensively and as tweenagers age they will increase usage. 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 teens then you're probably not shocked by the usage statistics. In all probability most parents can'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 will land them in the poorhouse, Nielsen analysis shows the average cost of a single text message is just one cent. The real issue concerning parents 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 Smart Phones

A practical technological solution available for parents and guardians to discover what what's going on with their children is spyphone technology. An excellent source of information on spyphone software for Parental Control is SpyMobi Spy Phone.

SMS Monitoring Software

The significance of spy phone software, and the need for it is demonstrated by the millions of searches on Google, Yahoo and Bing taking place every month. People often use these keywords for finding "How To" information on mobile monitoring technology to read SMS text messages , Call Logs and GPS Location include:

How Can I Tap a Cell Phone, How Can I Tap Into a Cell Phone, How To Listen Into Cell Phone Calls, How To Tap a Mobile, How To Tap a Mobile Phone, How To Get text message Records, How To Trace Cell Phone Call, How To Intercept SMS, How To Intercept Calls, How To Trace Cell Phones, How To Intercept Cell Phone Calls, How Do I Tap a Cell Phone, How To Spy On Cell Phone text messages, and How To Trace Cell Phone Number.

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These search terms are listed here to let you know that you are not the only parents or guardians looking for solutions to these critical family problems. Visit this website if you would like to read more about reliable small business Mobile Monitoring Software for BlackBerry and Android Smartphones . Or follow this link if you are more interested in Parental Monitoring Software for BlackBerry a

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