Parents get new weapons in war over kids' phones

26.05.2012
Parenting is war. As the father of two adult children, I have the battle scars (if not the shell shock) to prove it.

But I had it easy compared with the parents of young children today. Mobile consumer technology, especially the ubiquitous cellphone, is putting a world of risks into the hands of very young children.

It's an arms race. And finally, parents are being offered an arsenal of powerful weapons to protect their kids.

Fifty years ago, parents worried about their kids getting picked up off the street by creepy weirdos in cars, or being hit by cars. They worried about "bad elements" convincing their children to engage in immoral or criminal behavior. So parents drilled into their children rules of thumb: Don't talk to strangers. Look both ways before crossing the street. Come straight home after school.

It was all about physical avoidance. Those were the days.