Swollen Thumbs, Big Bills and “Sexting”: The Downside of Text Messaging

12-12-2008 National:

Text-messaging, it seems, has become the communication mode of choice among teenagers. That has opened the door to growing abuses.

This months’ Consumer Reports magazine says carriers are charging way too much for text-messaging service. Consumers Union, which publishes the monthly magazine, has asked federal officials to investigate text-messaging rates, the article says.

There are other problems, too. Medical professionals have long warned about the dangers of swollen thumbs and repetitive strain injuries among teens who text too much. Too much texting is one of the main reasons schools are restricting cellphone use.

Also, many teens are using text-messaging to send inappropriate images of themselves or others, such as nude photos or videos, the Washington Post reported this week. School officials and police in Seattle, Scranton, Pa., and New York have intervened, disciplining students or confiscating cell phones, for what has been labelled “sexting” – using text messaging for sexual material.

All of this news led me to pause and consider how text messaging is used in our family. It has become the customary way my kids, ages 18 and 20, and I communicate when we’re apart. After receiving some heart-stopping cell-phone bills, I tried to limit my teenage son’s use of texting. But it has become so fundamental to teens’ social lives that I soon threw up the white flag and bought the “unlimited texting” plan from our carrier. My son uses texting appropriately, but almost incessantly – so much so that my daughter and I kid him that he, like many teens, has forgotten how to actually talk on his cell phone.

Readers, how does your family use texting? Do you limit or oversee your children’s use of text messaging? ..News Source.. by Sue Shellenbarger