Tips for Parents to Prevent Sexting

Have you looked at your child's cell phone or social networking site lately? A growing number of teens are messaging sexually explicit and naked or semi-naked photos of themselves to their friends. Not only could this ruin their reputation, it could also land them into legal trouble.

TALK with your kids about appropriate and responsible ways to use technology.

DISCUSS the legal and social consequences of sexting.  Explain how "personal information" can be unscrupulously passed around, and how sharing too much information on the internet can damage their future or ruin their reputation.

TEACH your teens that just because a photo is deleted on their mobile phone or social networking site, doesn't mean that it isn't archived elsewhere and kept forever.

TALK to your child about peer pressure.  Some youth feel forced by romantic partners or "love interests" to send inappropriate images.

LIMIT your child's opportunities to "sext" by establishing and enforcing a phone curfew, or have your service provider disable some functions of the phone such as the camera or picture messaging.

MONITOR your child's phone and social networking sites.

USE a service such as My Mobile Watch Dog or Phone Sheriff which monitors your child's cell phone use.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: