Reply To: Cell phones for children (or parents)

A plain Jane phone can be very dangerous. Having your own personal private phone number where anyone can reach you either by calling or texting invites the possibility of making and maintaining acquaintances one should never have.

Imagine a teenage girl who goes to camp one summer and at the end of camp gives her friends her cell phone number. All it takes is one friend with problems to keep calling her or texting her. Her friend can also tell her friends to invite the cell phone girl to go with them to places that the cell phone girl would never dream of visiting but peer pressure is a tough thing to fight especially if she knows the girl from camp and likes her. She could very quickly via simple texting, become best friends with some of the other girls, boyfriends or girlfriends as they keep sharing and trying to get together.

This out of control communication on a very personal, private level would never take place if the nice girl from camp would have to use her parents phone in the kitchen or a payphone at school. It’s the individuality and 24 hour availability on a personal phone number of her cell phone that makes all the trouble brought to her.

This nice girl may never see the problems coming. She was told by her parents and maybe her teachers that having a “kosher” phone is 100% OK. She never meant to betray anyone’s trust or meant to do a bad thing but ultimately armed with her private cell phone, she is now enmeshed in a world that is very wrong for her. she has boyfriends. she has girlfriends of questionable religious backgrounds. She developed a liking to hang out with her new circle of friends she only acquired via her “kosher” phone. They text her night and day. Shabbos and Yom Tov as well if something “really important” has to be shared. This wonderful young lady with a great background and good family is on a path of ruination and she never even saw it coming because she trusted her parents and believed a cell phone is a proper thing to have.

I can give an illustration about how owning a “kosher” cell phone for a married man or woman also gives him / her the ability to speak or text people that he / she should have no relationship with but you get the picture.