Texting or Sexting – Do you Know What Your Kids are Doing?
Intercept SMS Text Messages
As sending text messages from mobile phones has become a focus in youth social life, parents, educators and advocates have grown increasingly alarmed about the role of cellular phones in the sexual lives of young adults. A recent research study from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project (pewinternet.org/topics/Teens.aspx) found that 4% of mobile phone using teenagers ages 12-17 say they have transmitted sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images or videos of themselves to other people via SMS text messages. This activity is commonly known as “sexting” in today’s vernacular. Additionally, fifteen percent say they have received these kinds of images 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 teens send an unimaginable average of 10 SMS texts per hour that they are not in school or sleeping – and probably a lot during school too!
By evaluating more than 40,000 monthly US mobile mobile bills, Nielsen found that American teenagers sent an average of an incredible 3,146 text messages each month during Q3 2009.
SMS Text Monitoring
Their younger counterparts – tweenagers – from age 9 to 12 sent an average of 1,146 texts each month. That that averages out to about four every hour they were in school or not sleeping. In comparison, 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 SMS 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 specific scenarios: The first, involves exchanges of images solely between two romantic partners;
the next, lists exchanges between partners that are then shared outside the relationship; 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 a variety of reasons surrounding the impulse 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 friends “… for their entertainment value, as a joke, or for fun.”
Teens also described to researchers the pressure they feel to share sexual images. Not surprisingly the report revealed that teens that are intensive users of cell phones are more likely to receive inappropriate images. For these teenagers, 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 desire for risk-taking and sexual exploration during the teen 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 some indications that per user usage has peaked (they can’t possibly use them more can they?!?) Nielsen forecasts that overall SMS usage will increase as the heavy text messaging demographic 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 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 shocked by the usage statistics. In all probability most parents can’t believe their teenagers 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 Smart Phones
A workable technological solution available for parents and guardians to discover what their children are doing is spyphone technology. An excellent source of information on spyphone software for Parental Control is SpyMobi Spy Phone.
SMS Monitoring Software
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