[constanceschofield]

One day my neighbor told me that teens like to share send nude or semi-nude pictures by their cell phones. I worry about my boy would do the same thing so I am considering to install a mobile spy to monitor him, but I don’t know if it is useful or not. does anyone use some mobile spy software before? By the way ,my son is using htc g7 with android system.

[lynn P.]

Welcome to PC constanceschofield - how old is your son? I have a teenage daughter 14 and another daughter 10. My oldest just has an IPOD touch because I don't think she needs a phone at this point. Someone could get into trouble with this as well. I found it easier just to have honest conversations about online safety and boundaries.

When my daughter was in grade 8, a girl at her school sent pornographic grade photos of herself to a boy at the school. He received them via Wi Fi on his Xbox with a 50 inch screen TV, while his friend was over. He then sent them to all his friends at school. Someone tipped off the police and several young men including the girl were all called down to the police station. She ended up transferring schools because everyone was gossiping. Luckily for them they were spared getting a record and given counseling instead.

Have a calm discussion about this with your son. If he's underage this is illegal. More importantly - that person can send out the nude pic to others and once its online its there for good...... because you don't know how many times it was sent out. You can also reinforce that nudity should be reserved for that special someone and not devalued by casually sending it out. Doing it this way will prevent it from happening, rather than 'waiting' for the mistake. Be proactive not reactive is my philosophy - best of luck.

I refuse to give my sons phones with photo/camera capability for just this reason. Yes, they have the most basic, cheap phones made. They have phones that only make phone calls and text (and I could even live without the texting capability quite frankly). I teach teenagers and have found that so many of them lack basic common sense about technology and privacy and safety even despite the great amount of time our school district spends trying to be proactive and educational about the social, emotional, and legal problems they can get mired in if they misuse technology. Teenagers are like teenagers have always been; they honestly believe nothing bad will ever really happen to them; it only happens to other people. It's the nature of the beast.

I have no knowledge about spy software available out there because, like I said, we purposefully restrict our kids personal access to that kind of technology. Our only computers are right in the middle of the living room, they are not allowed access to Facebook or other chatrooms, and they do not have live access on their gaming systems because those are not in a place where we can monitor their activity. It is good that you at least acknowledge that your son could possibly put himself in a bad situation; so many parents live in denial that their kids sometimes will do stupid things, not because they are bad kids, but because they just don't always engage life with caution and common sense. Lots of talking and education is always helpful but it doesn't necessarily translate into application under peer pressure. Parenting is such a maze sometimes, isn't it?

[Victoria'smom]

You can block multi-media text messaging (photo's in / out). I really don't think spy wear will help unless you want to know after the fact. They could still take pictures but not send them or receive them. If it's more that you don't trust them confiscate the phone.