Teens and Data Plans: Does Your Teenager Need Internet on Their Cell Phone?

Teenagers in today’s society have a wealth of information at their fingertips. Just by using a web-enabled cell phone, they have access to everything the internet has to offer. News outlets across the United States have reported the unseen dangers, but many parents remain unaware of the trouble that can result.

Here are ten reasons you might want to consider canceling your teen’s data plan.

1. Difficult to Monitor – Despite the parental controls that some service providers offer, a tech-savvy teen can still hide their tracks on a mobile device.
2. Sexually Inappropriate Content – Not having a data plan makes sending questionable images to another cell phone much more difficult. The lack of online capabilities can greatly reduce the access your teen has to sexually inappropriate content, whether that means pornography or sharing ill-advised photos of themselves.
3. Bullying – The bullying epidemic among older kids and teens is no secret. Limiting the capabilities of your teen’s cell phone can help protect them from some forms of bullying, or prevent them from being a bully to others.
4. The Distraction Factor – Today’s teens spend an enormous amount of time using social networking sites from their phones, leaving them completely distracted from the world around them. Not having the ability to access such sites at their fingertips throughout the entirety of their day forces them to interact with their surroundings; everything from their grades to the conversation at the dinner table can improve when there’s no media plan available.
5. Cheating – Having access to search engines during a difficult test can tempt even the most honest teen. Removing that temptation can help steer your teen away from making a decision that can have an adverse effect on their academic future.
6. Usage Fees – The charges for data usage can be exorbitant, especially if your teen is downloading music, games and ringtones. Opting to have data usage disabled can save a small fortune, especially if you have more than one teenager on a family plan.
7. Driving Dangers – While disabling data use doesn’t prevent texting, it can limit the available distractions. Have a talk with your teen driver about the dangers of texting while driving, but it might be a good idea to also consider dropping the data plan from their line for this reason as well.
8. Peer Pressure and Risky Behavior – Today, everything from nudity to fighting is encouraged among groups of teens, simply for the purpose of recording and sharing the photos and video footage. Limiting the capabilities of your teen’s device can curtail his or her involvement in such risky or illegal behavior.
9. Spreading of Harmful Rumors and Gossip – Though most wouldn’t use the term “blackmail,” that’s exactly what some teens are doing when they use photos and video caught on a cell phone to torment a classmate. Though disabling your teen’s data usage won’t protect them from being the victim of voyeurism, it will prevent them from sharing embarrassing footage of others.
10. Too Much Information – Many social networking sites like Facebook offer the ability to “check in” from a mobile device. This publishes the user’s current location, sometimes complete with a map. For naïve teens, this doesn’t seem like an issue, but it can be dangerous if their privacy settings allow strangers to see the information.

Simply restricting your teen’s access to these services won’t keep them safe from the dangers of our high-tech society. It’s imperative to explain your reasons for not allowing mobile web access, and to have a conversation about the behaviors that a cell phone simply documents.

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Spring Bring, Teens and Maintaining Cell Phone Bills

With the start of Spring Break around the corner (and summer soon after!), some people, including our teens, will be traveling abroad.

Nothing can put a damper on fond memories of a trip faster than sticker shock from your wireless bill. To help customers keep charges predictable when traveling internationally, AT&T offers these tips:

·         First, check service availability where you’re traveling.
·         Determine wireless device compatibility with your travel destination.
·         Check for provider hotspots where you’re traveling.
·         If you want to use data and track your usage abroad, purchase an international data package. An international data package can significantly reduce the cost of using data abroad. When evaluating which data package to purchase, look at your average monthly data usage on past statements and estimate your data needs based on the number of days you’ll be traveling internationally. Remember, streaming audio/video can use a lot of data very quickly.
·         Track your usage upon arrival abroad. Some devices (like iPhones) have native usage trackers, and most communication manager software for laptops will have usage tracking capabilities. If your device does not offer an embedded usage tracker, check to see if your provider has an app that will. For example, AT&T offers the myAT&T app
·         If you don’t want to receive email automatically, disable your device’s autocheck functionality. You may then use WiFi as a supplement to 3G/GPRS/EDGE to download and manually check email.
·         If you want to place calls but not use data, check the settings on your device before traveling abroad. By default, the setting for international data roaming will typically be in the “OFF” position.

Turning data roaming “OFF” blocks email, browsing, visual voicemail and downloads, but it will not block text messages. International roaming rates apply when you send text or picture/video messages.

Let’s face it, in a time when gas is sky-rocketing, the groceries are going up, the last thing we need to be faced with is another increase of a monthly bill.