I think lespaul506 is missing the point. "A pre-teen or a teenager with unrestricted cell-phone usage"

The unrestricted usage is key. When our children have physical friends we don't allow unrestricted access, we have guidelines etc & want to know who our children are spending time with & we want to know their parent's info also. Technology circumvents parental authority easily.

Modest privacy is one thing, but secrecy is another. Secrecy provides the opportunity for temptation, & the only reason for secrecy is to hide what the child doesn't want the parents to know. If they are doing what is right why hide it?

The author is saying that we need to be as aware of the children's cell phone/virtual use as we are of their physical relationships, because it is far too easy for Christian teens to be tempted & fall, because of their immaturity, to this technology if there is no oversight/accountability.

Children need parents not friends, & discipline should always be loving but resolute.

I'm absolutely appalled that you would suggest parents know about every call and text that their child is sending/receiving. Is that how we're to teach children about trust? What about teaching your child right from wrong and giving them the ability to do so on their own? Think about when you were a teen and how you would have responded to this kind of invasion!

While it is correct that teens do not need cellphones, I'm sure your parents said the same thing to you at that age. That's how technology works, and the problem is not with having cell phones, it's how they're used. "The company of that young man or woman is now away from the scrutiny of parents, and is now left only to his or her discretion or conscience." Exactly! You as a parent should be teaching your child integrity so that their discretion is proper.

"Nonetheless, for thousands of years pre-teens and teenagers have safely grown to adulthood without having communication devices in their pockets." The amish and your parents could have told you that for thousands of years people have gotten by without such technological advances as the zipper or the internal combustion engine, but would you give up such niceties? The problem is not with the technology, but with the lack of proper parenting.

This is a great article! I hope more people read it. I'm going to start sending it around.

The simple, basic fact remains: they don't NEED mobile phones. If more parents would recognize this, and if more parents would behave responsibly and monitor what the kids are doing, we would have fewer problems.

Did you know that people are now getting prosecuted for child pornography because the kids are sending pix of their private parts? http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090204/ap_on_hi_te/tec_teen_sexting