Do Cell Phones Teach Children Another Gospel
Russell D. Moore makes an excellent point about kids and cell phones in his post “Does Your Child’s Cell Phone Preach Another Gospel?” Moore writes:
A pre-teen or a teenager with unrestricted cell-phone usage (or Internet or television consumption) is being placed in a very, very difficult place of temptation. The company of that young man or woman is now away from the scrutiny of parents, and is now left only to his or her discretion or conscience. Are there some young Christians who can handle such? Of course. Should you assume your child is one of them? Your Father is more careful of you than that.
First of all, pre-teens and teenagers, simply, brace yourself, don’t need cellphones. I know you’re immediately responding with safety issues, etc. Nonetheless, for thousands of years pre-teens and teenagers have safely grown to adulthood without having communication devices in their pockets. Pre-teens and teenagers all over the world do it right now, and they survive.
Second, if your child does have a cellphone, this means you have a cellphone. Your responsibility is to know about every call, and the identity of every person text-messaging your son or daughter. You don’t have time to monitor this? Then you don’t have time for your child to have a cellphone.
This doesn’t mean you have to turn your house into an Inquisition hall. It simply means your child knows that you love him or her enough to check in frequently to see what’s going on in life. It also means that you communicate clearly that the child doesn’t have a personal cellphone, autonomous of your authority. It’s your cellphone, and your child is using it.
April 22 2009 05:00 am | Blog
Lauretta on 22 Apr 2009 at 4:13 pm #
Regarding cell phones even for high school kids, I would suggest a rule that the child’s cell phone is turned OFF at night. That means, the cell phone charger goes in the living room, so that people don’t call the child all night long.
My kids were receiving MANY late-night phone calls while they were in high school, and I never even knew it. They needed their rest!
They weren’t mature enough to leave the phone OFF. And so I suggest, the phones should be out of their control at bedtime.