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Christopher Miller
CST 300L
December 20, 2013
A Childs Savior or Nightmare
Children these days have so much technology in their lives. Cell phones are so advance now,
they are as powerful as the desktop of five years ago. All the information on the internet can be
accessed by the user anywhere in the world. The user can call or send a text message to anyone,
there is nothing that limits cell phones capabilities. Parents want their children to have a cell
phone, so if they are in trouble, help can be called. Text messaging has shown to be very
dangerous as parents cant monitor the messages that are sent between their child and the person
on the other end.
In the last half decade children have been put endanger by electronic devices that our
culture has taken for granted. The cell phone has been one of the greatest developments in
technology that allows the world to communicate with out the requirement of a physical
connection. Since its commercial implementation in the 1980s, it has been evolving in to a
personal computer in your pocket. The early cell phones were just a phone where you could talk
to whoever you wanted. Then the cell phone was given the ability to send digital text messages
from one person to another. Soon after text messaging, the internet became available on the cell
phones using a WAP browser. While Black Berry was leading the way with smart phones, in
2007, Apple released the iPhone which changed the world of cell phones overnight. The iPhone
gave the user a touch screen with graphical user interface that was very easy to learn. This began
the creation of applications, which were not just for calling and texting. Now the user could
check their email or watch videos on the internet.

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Parents are constantly dealing with the issue of keeping their children safe with current
technology. The cell phone opens up multiple avenues that can allow access to content that a
child should not see or know about until they are adults. While giving their child the ability to
call 911 when there is an emergency is essential, is it worth the dangers of having a cell phone?
There are hundreds of stories of children being bullied through the use of cell phones and
computers. Children are naturally curious, the internet is a very dangerous place with a curious
mind, and there are people out there that would manipulate a child to do sexually explicit things
and to send pictures of those events. Cell phones need to have more options to protect children
from the dangers associated with a cell phone and parents need to understand what their child
can access with their smart phones.
There are kids that get bullied every day, and are expecting to be in a safe environment at
home. Where they can escape the bullies and any other problems that may be affecting them
during the day. But there are bullies that know the kids cell phone number or know there social
media accounts, that will attack the kids they bully with any chance they get. So many children
these days are committing suicide of such small matter. To them this is a nightmare they cannot
escape so they take the only route that will end the pain. This is such a huge problem that keeps
growing. For example BullyingStatistics.org has stated that Suicide is the third leading cause of
death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year, according to the CDC. For
every suicide among young people, there are at least 100 suicide attempts. Over 14 percent of
high school students have considered suicide, and almost 7 percent have attempted it.
(BullyingStatistics.org.2013a) children dont understand simple these problems would be if they
would just talk to someone and get there problems out in the open. They have also found that
Text bullies are often much meaner because they don't have to see their victims.

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(BullyingStatistics.org.2013b) There is nothing that is stopping a bully who is terrorizing there

victim. Parents need to talk to their children before getting there cell phone as teaching them how
to handle certain situations that will come up.
On November 7, 2013, a 15 year old girl was arrested for bullying 3 other 15 year old
girls. She used a smart phone application called KIK to send hundreds of texts to her victims.
Some of the texts said Nobody like you and I hate you so much.( WTSPnews. November 7,
2013) The bully also knew that one of her victims relatives committed suicide and encouraged
that victim to commit suicide and go see her relative. (WTSPnews. November 7, 2013) These
victims could have actually committed suicide, if the police werent already investigating the
bully. Parents are really defenseless when it comes to this sort of harassment, unless they talk to
their children and monitor their childs social habits. In the case of of Rebecca Ann Sedwick, the
family wasnt so lucky. She committed suicide because of cyber bullying that followed her from
her previous school. She was only in 7th grade and she got bullied so badly that she took her own
life. Rebecca was bullied at school and on Facebook, as well as other social media sites, all of
which can be accessed very easily with a smart phone. Parents have to be the first line of defense
against bullying, the mother of Rebecca says a bullying complaint was filed with the school
district but she later states They blew it off. (WTSPnews. September 10, 2013)
There are multiple ways for child predators to get in contact with a child using just a cell
phone, most use online chat rooms. But as cell phones get more and more advance those chat
rooms are available where ever the phone has service. A big trend with cell phones is sexting,
which, Sexting is when people send sexual text messages or pornographic photos via cell
phones.( Howstuffworks.com. ND) Children are curious and when someone starts talking to
them about adult material they will listen. This is also a problem with bullying because teenagers

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will send sexual texts or photos to each other, after doing so the receiver can forward the text or
photo to anyone they want without the sender knowing until its too late. The receiver can also
use the image or message as a retaliation against the sender. According to the University of Texas
Medical Branch, 28% of teens admitted to having sent a sext, 76% of teens who were proposition
to sext admitted to having had sexual intercourse, while the peak age of sexting is around 16 and
17 years of age.( Lohmann, Raychelle Cassada. April 7, 2013) At the university of Utahs
Department of Psychology, Researchers surveyed 606 teens ages 14-18 and found that
approximately 20 percent of the teens said they had sent a sexual image of themselves via cell
phone. About twice as many teens admitted to receiving a sext. To top it off, of those who
reported receiving a sext, well over 25 percent said that they had forwarded it to someone else.
So, they're sharing the pics with their friends.( Lohmann, Raychelle Cassada. July 20, 2012)
Parents need to understand what their childs cell phones can do and what they can be used for.
There are multiple companies and programs that can help parents monitor their childs
cell phones. TeenSafe is a company that provides the parent a detail history of their childs cell
phone use. TeenSafe monitors the location history, texts that are sent and received, and the parent
can see their Facebook activities as well as internet activity. Their software only works for apple
and android phone.(TeenSafe. ND) Dr. Phil, the well know tv talk show doctor, has put to get
there a list of what he feels are the top five cell phone monitoring software. Two of the programs
on his list are DadGuard and My Mobile Watchdog. DadGuard, was developed by a father of 8
kids, the program runs discreetly and behind the scenes on their phone, so the parent can watch
over their kids without actually being there. (DadGuard. ND) My Mobile Watchdog is only
available on Andriod and BlackBerry. It offers the same things as DadGuard, but allows you to

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set alerts or actually block certain parts of the phone with certain applications. (My Mobile
Watchdog. 2013) These are all applications and services for smart phones.
If the parent is not comfortable with technology, then there best way defense to protect
them is knowledge. They should develop a open relationship with their child, one that the child
knows they can talk to their parent about anything. If an open relationship is not a viable option
then study what to look for if their son or daughter is in danger or being bullied. There are sites
to help understand the acronyms that are used, for example, netlingo has an in depth list of
acronyms.(Netlingo.com. ND) parents need to know it is ok to be nosy, checking your childs
online activities is not an invasion of privacy its parenting. (Johnson, Karen L. October 05,
2013)The parents need to educate themselves so when they start to see the signs that something
could be endangering their child they are ready for it.
Parents are the only defense for children, they need to understand that the only defense is
knowledge. I feel that before parents get their child a cell phone, they must do their homework
and understand the dangers that come with a device that has access to the internet. The cell
phone is an amazing achievement that is ever evolving, having the ability to talk to your child
and see their location at your fingertips, is priceless. If there is an emergency the child can call
for help but it also opens up avenues for other people that might want to harm your child.
Children are put in danger every day, the cell phone should not be one of them, I
personally believe that there should be an age limit for cellphones that have everything unlocked,
or at the very least a cellphone line that is made for that is made for a children under the age of
16. I see so many news stories of children being put in danger because there are some people out
there that are very unstable. There are also other children in this world that feel better about

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themselves by bullying or terrorizing other children, cell phones give them the ability to attack
there victims at their home, in the one place in the world where there supposed to feel the safest.
We as the creators of tomorrows future, need to make this world a safer place for these children.
I would really like to help develop a phone for children that would be fun and exciting while give
their curiosity a chance to build on something great. Growing up with cellphones and being a
part of the ever evolving world of smart phones. I feel that there is a need for a child smart phone
in this world. One that parents can be kept in the loop, and the child can feel like their privacy is
being respected. This is only part of the solution, the other half is having parents that are
educated on what their child will be encountering with such a powerful device.
This world is full of people that are dangerous, parents shouldnt put their kids out in to
the world unprepared or ill prepared. Children should have cell phones it is an amazing device
that allows instant communication between two people. Children should have cell phones so that
if the time comes that they are in a dangerous situation or they need immediate help it is there.
When I was in the first week of my 3rd grade year of school, I had appendicitis, I went to school
and dealt with the pain all day. When I got off the bus at my bus stop, I was supposed to walk 1.5
miles to my house all up hill, but I couldnt make it more than 50 feet from where the bus
dropped me off, so I just sat there waiting for my mom to get worried and come pick me up.
Over an hour later, my mom drove up and asked why I didnt walk up our road, I explained to
her that it hurt too much to walk or do anything else. We go home and determined what it might
be and went to the hospital, where I was rushed in to surgery. The surgeon told my mom that if I
would have waited any longer and I would have been in real bad shape. If my mom never came
down to see if I got off the bus, I possibly could have died. I see this as an excellent situation
where if I had a cell phone I could have called and let my parents know what my situation is and

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have receive help sooner. When there is an emergency it is so helpful to have a 911 at your
fingertips. There is also a lot of people that abuse this, and I feel that children would abuse this
privilege a lot more.
I would like to see strict laws put emplace on cell phones that involve children. Parents
need to take responsibility for what their child does on the cell phone. If someone elses child
commits suicide because they were being bullied by another child, the bully and the parents pf
that child need to take responsibility. Children just get slaps on the writs when it comes to being
punished for a major crime. When a minor commits an act that would normally put an adult in
jail, a minor might get 1-3 months house arrest with probation. House arrest in todays world is
like an unpaid forced vacation where you have Xbox all day and you dont have to worry about
anything until your sentence is complete. If parents took responsibility as well for a crime that
their child was involved in then I think there would be a lot less crimes because parents would be
raising our futures generation better.
Sexting is a huge problem in our world of technology and children should have no place
getting mixed up in that world. I feel so bad meeting some kids that have had their lives turned
upside down because they we some of the first people to start text sexual messages as kids and
they have some deep under lying issues because of it. I really hope parents will be noisy more
often and see what their child is doing in their free time, while on their phone. they also need to
know that if their child is caught sexting, they can be punished as a sexual offender, and be
labeled as a sexual offender they will have to register on the national predators database for the
rest of their lives, even though it might have been just a one time thing.

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There are so many sexual predators in this world that this shouldnt be something that
needs to be discuss but parents need to talk to their children and inform them what is out there. If
they feel they can talk to their child about a sexual predator because they are too young then they
should have a cell phone that is specially designed for a child. The national predator database
stats that there are 3,695 new sexual predators registered this week alone, with a total of 701,995
sexual predators, and out of that 700,000 predators only 417,155 have a valid address to where
they live. That means over 50% of the sexual predators registered on the site are at a known
location. (NationalPredatorDatabase. ND) So if your child were to talk to a sexual predator over
there cell phone or a social media site using their cell phone. That is such a huge amount of
sexual predators locations that are unknown, which not knowing where their child is or who
there talking to is putting their son or daughter in a position where they could be assaulted or
worst kidnapped to never be seen again. Here is another freighting fact, in California there are
over 82,000 registered sex offenders, out of that amount there are only 21,000 with a valid
address. (NationalPredatorDatabase. ND) That means there could be more in your neighbor
hoods that you will not know about until its too late. I think that cell phone companies should
ask for an age that will be using the cell phone so that if some sort of message is sent through the
phone it will trigger an alert and notify the cell phone carrier and the parent or guardian of the
child. If that is too much to ask for from a cell phone company then when they by the phone, the
purchaser should be provided the opportunity to install some monitoring software, just so the
child and be kept safe without the parent having to actually be there.
There is no parent on this earth that wants to hear that their child is being treated in any
way other than a child should be treated. I think if all parents are made aware of everything that
is out there. They could be the first line of defense for their child and having the knowledge base

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and support of tools that are designed to help protect. With dangerous people lurking about in the
world parents should know what dangers are out there, and ways to protect from those dangers.
They should understand the tools that are available to them when they buy a cell phone and they
should know what cellphones come made to for children. A great program that I will continue to
back is TeenSafe which is a monitoring program that will inform parents when there could be
something going on with their childs cell phone that shouldnt be. And I really hope I can inform
parents and guarding to go on the netlingo website and just learn about different acronyms or
phrases to help influence their knowledge base. Most of the programs cost money in order to
monitor a childs cell phone that it truly is a small price to pay in knowing that you have a
watchful eye on your childs life, without actually have a conversation until it is the right time.
Children must be kept safe, while we will always say that we grew up in a time that had a
lot less safety restraints put in place, we also didnt have cell phones when we were ten years old.
So being that this is our future, we need to protect them with any means necessary. They should
not have to know what a sexual predator is until they are old enough to understand what they are
and how to protect themselves against them. Children also should not be texting sexual pictures
or sexual messages to each other or other people, for they are not of age to understand the
implications or ramifications of what they are doing.
Bullying is my biggest fear for a child and I feel so bad for parents that talk about their
child being bullied. To have children be bullied at school then at home is poor protection by the
parents and poor child raising skills by the bullys parents. When parents interact with their kids
they need to look at the warning signs of depression, or at the very least just talk to their children
and know what is going on in their lives.

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Martinez, Michael. October 28, 2013. Charges in Rebecca Sedwick's suicide suggest
'tipping point' in bullying cases. http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/25/us/rebeccasedwick-bullying-suicide-case/

WTSPnews. November 7, 2013. 15-year-old St. Pete girl arrested for cyber bullying.
http://www.wtsp.com/rss/article/343578/82/15-year-old-St-Pete-girl-arrested-forcyber-bullying
WTSPnews. September 10, 2013. 12-year-old Rebecca Ann Sedwick found dead in
Lakeland. http://www.wtsp.com/news/topstories/article/334490/250/12-year-old-girlfound-dead-in-Lakeland
Lohmann, Raychelle Cassada. April 7, 2013. Teen Sexting - The Real Issue.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/teen-angst/201304/teen-sexting-the-realissue
Lohmann, Raychelle Cassada. July 20, 2012. The Dangers of Teen Sexting.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/teen-angst/201207/the-dangers-teen-sexting

TeenSafe. ND. TeenSafe. https://cp.teensafe.com/

DadGuard. ND. DadGuard. http://dadguard.com/
My Mobile Watchdog. 2013. My Mobile Watchdog.
http://www.mymobilewatchdog.com/default.shtml

Johnson, Karen L. October 05, 2013. 5 tips to help keep parents keep their kids safe while online.
http://www.pennlive.com/bodyandmind/index.ssf/2013/10/5_tips_to_help_keep_parents_in.html

Howstuffworks.com. ND. WHAT ARE SOME CELL PHONE SAFETY TIPS FOR KIDS?.
http://health.howstuffworks.com/pregnancy-and-parenting/what-are-some-cellphone-safety-tips-for-kids.htm

NationalPredatorDatabase. ND. State Statistics. http://www.nationalpredatordatabase.com/

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BullyingStatistics.org. 2013a. Text Bullying. http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/textbullying.html

BullyingStatistics.org. 2013b. Bullying and Suicide.

http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/text-bullying.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-jackson/how-cell-phone-use-is-destroying-your-kidsshort-term-memory_b_4016345.html

http://www.aboutourkids.org/articles/kids_cell_phones_staying_connected

http://children.webmd.com/features/children-and-cell-phones

http://www.education.com/topic/kids-cell-phones/

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/kids-cell-phones-child-phone/story?id=13385091

http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1636836_1389502,00.html
https://www.google.com/search?
q=children+and+cell+phones&oq=children+and+cel&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l5.4937j0j4&source
id=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=122&ie=UTF-8

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