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Strollerderby
Chances are, that by the time your kids hit their teens, they’ll have cell phones burning holes in their hot little pockets. Cell phones with cameras. Some of them will almost certainly use those cameras to take nude or sexually explicit photos of themselves, their girlfriends, or that guy on the back of the bus that dared them to do it.
Then a few will use the magic of modern cellular networks to forward those pictures to their crushes, their friends, or just maybe their entire English class.
And unless current laws change, they’ll be creating and trafficking in child pornography when they do it. Those are federal felony charges that can send kids to prison, and create criminal records that will haunt them for life.
How can you persuade your kids not to sexts? Anne Collier talks to Lenore Skenazy and the crew at Free Range Kids about sexting, kiddie porn, and what parents can do.
If you have a teenager, sometimes it feels like you never actually see your child’s face. Sure, you remember what he looks like, but the only part of your kid your eyeballs come into contact with on a regular basis is the crown of his head as he types rapidly on the keypad of his cell. According to a study by Nielsen, you may be right.
A few months ago, young teen Hope Witsell was found hanging in her bedroom. Her suicide was apparently a response to relentless bullying at school following an incident in which she sent a topless photo of herself to a boy, who showed it around the school.
Witsell was punished by her parents and by school administrators for her “crime”, and the taunting by her classmates continued unabated into a new school year.
Was this death by sexting?
Well then maybe you should have monitored the boy a little closer?
According to this story, father Ted Estarija bought a phone for his 13-year-old, claimed he made Verizon put limits on the plan and then was shocked to discover a $21,000 bill for the month.
Ouch.
“This is not completely his fault, I put more blame on Verizon than anybody. They shouldn’t allow this to happen,” the father was quoted as saying. Continue reading »
Pretty soon, kids will be going to school naked. And no, this isn’t a statement on the skimpiness of half the items in the juniors section. This is about the latest item to be banned by school districts: hoodies.
You know, those hooded sweatshirts favored by the Unabomber, shlubby moms like me and teenagers? Continue reading »
I can talk on the phone while I drive in my state – I just can’t touch the phone while I’m doing it. But no one ever said anything about taking the lid off my daugher’s bottle of water. Or retrieving her thrown Croc. Or, hello, scooching my butt forward in the seat so I can get a good angle in the rearview mirror to make sure she isn’t eating (and choking on) the lollipop they gave her at the bank.
A piece in the NY Times this week accuses one federal agency of withholding crucial statistics about what distracts drivers – apparently so they wouldn’t piss off Congress.
They were focused on cell phone usage (no surprise there), but the writers over at Network World had tongue firmly planted in cheek in using the Times article as a jumping off point to call for government regulation of the driver distractions caused by kids.
Trouble is? Continue reading »
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Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
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Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
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