Should Parents Go Through Contents Of Their Children's Mobile Phones?

I am wondering in this age of mobile phones how many parents take their time to ensure that their teenage or even younger children do not keep undesireable media in their mobile phones, like pictures, music or videos.
Today we have all kinds of material circulating the mobile phone world and can be transferred easily without physical connection of persons or devices.
What exactly should be the responsibility of parents and the extent of commitment to this kind of check if actually it is proper.

This is surely an eye opener oh.
But the parents gotta be careful too, because they don't want to drive the kids away too, i think the secret is to be the best of the kid and share minds and thoghts and they will be close enough to you to share all things together.

i go through my sons phone all the time to review what he has on there.

But i also have a GPS locator on his phone and can locate him anywhere.

Very tricky one !
i agree with ya .

@ topic

Why buy the phone in the first place?

michelin89,

I think there are a lot of important reasons to have your child carry a mobile phone. I know some children have mobile phones in the boarding house. Lots of parents give these phoes to keep track of their children for security reasons.
Some parents get their children simple phones, like VISAPHONE type, no fancy, no memory cards or bluetooth connectivity, some parents get their children a bit advanced phones with all the good features.

When I was a teenager there were no mobile phones but I was very mature at heart. Today there is a lot of exposure to rotten material, via music used as ring tones, voice recordings, voice calls however cannot be avoided. Videos and internet.

Parents may not necessarily pay the all bills, people can send recharge numbers to anyone so it may not be a benchmark for checking the phones.

I know some teenagers receive "Good" mobile phones as gifts from relatives or friends even if their parents did not desire to buy them such phones.
I know of a case with some issues in a home over a mobile phone gift to a teenage girl, which was more serious than her elder brother's phone. It wasn't a pleasant experience for her either when their father decided to seize the phone to avoid all the controversy in the house.
However I think children's mobile phones should be checked by parents from time to time perhaps until they are above 15 years. Also it might be a good thing to restrict phone types to call and sms feature phones only. Visaphone and starcomms maybe.

That's not reason enough. You can't buy a gift for someone and yet keep on nagging him on how they are supposed to use it. Before you bought it you should have made sure they were fully capable of handling it.

As I said, you had better not buy it at all.

No wonder you are a child.  Respect your elders young lady.

  Is that why she's now siezed it?

that is exactly what she was doing.  I do it to my son all the time. 

Ahahhahahahahaha! So typical of the so called adults.

When you can't answer you play the immaturity card. So just because i don't agree with you I am disrespecting you? Sorry but these tricks don't work with me.

As a child I find it very upsetting having my parents controlling my phone or my computer just because they bought it for me. If you can't let me use it the way I want then don't buy it and tell me it's mine. Rather tell me it's yours and I can use it from time to time.

My children have cell phones which I used to check ocassionally without letting them know. I don't have any reason to check the phones again because I have come to truct them and I know how serious they are with their christian lives.

I'm actually thinking I'll try and check the phones again sometime soon 

@ parents

No wonder you grow grey hair before time.  You stress yourself over issues that can't be solved. This might hurt but there is no amount of control that'll stop your child from seeing what s/he wants to see. You were children yourselves so you know what I am talking about.

What is unknown to us always appears to be the most fascinating thing ever. So the more you try to keep them away from them, the more they'll like to see and THEY WILL SEE IT ONE DAY WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT.

Educating them is the best thing. When I was a child my granny didn't have to follow me around when I played in the neighbourhood. From what she told me I always refused food from strangers and that's because she brought me up to act that way.

Enlighten your kid on the risks (without inventing ridiculous stories) of using phones, ipods and computers. It's for sure that they'll see the forbidden but they'll always have your lessons in mind and regulate their behaviour according to them.

actually it belongs to them, since it was given as a gift. 


that's actually sneaky, just be open with your children rather than playing tricks on them. 

Yes!

I ask 4 it & check it.

I have my daughter's password for her email. I check it regularly because she is in secondary school.

I know what teenage boys r like.