Do you audit your teen's phone?

Anonymous
Do you check their phones to see what they're up to?
Anonymous
My teen doesn’t have a phone except the one hooked to the wall at the house.
Anonymous
No...but they were schooled on internet safety, cyberbullying, grooming, etc, and are generally responsible kids. Kids are now 20 and 15. So far so good.
Anonymous
No. I also have pretty responsible kids and I believe in privacy.
Anonymous
How would you go about doing this? Unless you had a keylogger type program hidden on it.
Anonymous
Yes. Definitely regularly for my 7th grader, who just got a phone. Only every couple months for my 10th grader. Both phones stay in our room overnight. Even my 7th grader has a TON of messaged overnight from friends. Seems like many kids have access to their phones 24/7.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:No...but they were schooled on internet safety, cyberbullying, grooming, etc, and are generally responsible kids. Kids are now 20 and 15. So far so good.


Me again. No devices in the teens' rooms at night. They all live downstairs and get recharged. When DD comes down the morning, her iPad is full of overnight messages from friends. Apparently none of them sleep!
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:No...but they were schooled on internet safety, cyberbullying, grooming, etc, and are generally responsible kids. Kids are now 20 and 15. So far so good.


I’m glad your kids are doing well but for parents of younger kids…schooling them on internet safety many times isn’t enough!
Anonymous
Yes semi regularly for my 13 year olds and they know it.
With consistent good behavior I check it less and will loosen up over the years.

They have friends messaging through the night, which I know from seeing it and the number of alerts going off when they turn it on in the mornings. It is off by 8 or 9pm every evening at the latest, absent weekend outings.

100 percent behind not allowing teens to have phones in the bedroom ever but especially not overnight.
Anonymous
Initially pretty often; now, about once a month. My oldest tells me everything, so less her than my youngest who will only share when she thinks it could get her in trouble if I find out on my own.
Anonymous
Yes, semi regular check my 13-year-old's and she knows I can and probably am doing it. Have been pleasantly surprised by what I've seen there, going in to Halloween week there are several text threads about kids who don't have a group to be with and my DD and her friends inviting them in to their costume group and trick or treating plans.

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Yes, semi regular check my 13-year-old's and she knows I can and probably am doing it. Have been pleasantly surprised by what I've seen there, going in to Halloween week there are several text threads about kids who don't have a group to be with and my DD and her friends inviting them in to their costume group and trick or treating plans.



Yes! I've found a bunch of sweet things like this and also a quick shutting down of a kid who said some things that could be interpreted as intolerance of differences.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Yes. Definitely regularly for my 7th grader, who just got a phone. Only every couple months for my 10th grader. Both phones stay in our room overnight. Even my 7th grader has a TON of messaged overnight from friends. Seems like many kids have access to their phones 24/7.


Same here with a 7th grader. I tell her I read the messages and also I read them in front of her.
Phone is not allowed upstairs ever. Also, at this age, no social media apps.

It's not perfect but I have to admit my kid gets more social time with friends now that she has a phone. And the text chats are dumb but pretty benign, with some self-policing when people get rude.
Anonymous
Not really. I had a mom who listened in on phone conversations and read my diary (where I kept notes from friends) and it felt like such an invasion of privacy that I can’t allow myself to do the modern day equivalent to my children.
Anonymous
Yep, as a young teen. By the time she was in 10th, no. "Come to me with anything that concerns you or if you're in over your head."
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