How Parents Can Keep Teens from Hypertexting

Hypertexting is a fairly new term used for people who use text messaging throughout a huge percentage of their day. It has recently come to the attention of the medical community and they say that hyper texting (texting more than 120 times in a school day) is putting the youth at risk. Doctors state that it appears that hypertexting leads the youth into things such as smoking, drinking and drugs. It is important for parents to learn ways to keep their teenagers use of text messaging to a minimum in order to prevent them from falling into these types of activities. Teenagers have to deal with enough temptations without adding texting to them.

How parents can keep teens from Hypertexting:

Unlimited Texting- When you get a cell phone for your child, avoid adding unlimited texting to it. This will limit the amount of texts that your teen is sending to his/her friends. If the teen goes over that texting limit, there will be rather high charges. Let your teen know that if that happens, he/she will be charged the extra amount of money to cover it. If you teen doesn't have a job, require him/her to work off the extra money that they went over on cell phone texting. Either one of these actions will make your teen more cautious about Hypertexting during school hours or at any other time.

Monitor- With most cell phone companies, you are able to track each phone on your plan without any problems. Just keep track of what your teenager is doing with his/her cell phone as far as texting goes by checking the account on the internet. This can, with some companies, give you very up-to-date information about texting, calls made and other important information about what your child is doing on his/her cell phone. You can then talk to your child if you feel it is getting out of hand. Be sure that your child knows that you will be tracking his/her phone calls and texting so that he/she has a fair chance to understand that there will be consequences if he/she goes overboard with texting.

Check the Sent and Received Boxes- Let your children know that you reserve the right to check the text messages that he/she is sending and receiving. This may not stop it all, but it can stop your children from sending text messages that may be something you wouldn't approve of because they won't want to take a chance on getting in trouble. There are ways around it but eventually, the teen will forget to delete those messages and you will have a better idea of what he/she is really up to.

Use Your Power as a Parent- You are the one in charge, not your teenager. It is up to you to use the power of being a parent to set the rules of using the cell phone and to see that your child obeys those rules. If he/she doesn't obey the rules, it is up to the parent to discipline the teenager so that he/she learns that there are certain things that won't be tolerated. It is just like any other part of parenting. You have to keep a close eye on what your children are doing.

No Cell Phone- Teenagers don't have to have cell phones nor do they need to text all the time. There are two things that you can do. The first is to disallow the use of a cell phone altogether. This will keep your teenager from Hypertexting and getting him/herself into trouble. The other thing that you could do is to set boundaries that if your teenager abuses texting capability or is irresponsible with the phone in anyway that he/she will no longer have a phone to use at all.

There are a lot of great things about where technology has been and where it is going. It is up to the parent to make sure their child is paying attention to the rules and regulations you have set forth. If the teenager is irresponsible with their cell phone, it is obvious they aren't ready to have one yet and therefore, it may be time to reconsider whether you should allow him/her to have it at all.