My son’s 12th Birthday is approaching (on 12/12). His wish is to have a cell phone. In my opinion, he doesn’t need one. He spends most of his time at school. Even after school, he joins the Tiger Shark swim team and International Soccer team, and his Mom is nearby, so he won’t need a cell phone for anything at all. The thing that we worry about the most is that if we give him a cell phone, it might be more troublesome than of help to him. Is he allowed to surf the Web and send and receive text messages and photos freely? It seems to me that electronic communication has become invisible or endless. Sometimes, I just don’t have time to monitor my kids. I can only start to imagine how often my son will text his friends. However, as Debbe Geiger wrote in her article: “ In today’s world, texting is how kids stay connected with their peers. For many kids, it’s a major part of their social world, and not having it makes them feel like an outcast.” That’s why I will probably have to buy one…

I hardly have time to check my son’s Facebook regularly, all his friends and classmates have Facebook. We may not be aware of this, but the minimum age for a Facebook profile and account is 14.Now am I supposed to provide more devices to create more troubles? Tara Parker-Pope mentioned in her article: “The best route is probably to have lots of discussion and education. Talk with your kids about what kinds of cyberbullying they may have witnessed between cellphone users, and how they might personally avoid or respond to such problems. Because all of our kids will have to use electronic devices throughout their lives, education, experience and talking about these problems is probably the only long-term solution to electronic misbehavior.”
I shared a stopcyberbullying website with my son and decided to give him a cellphone.