Cell phones can help you ensure your child's safety but they also present a number cautionary aspects. A child with a cell phone can always call a parent, guardian, or another trusted party when away from home but the child's use of a cell phone may affect your phone bill and there are also dangerous activities that cell phones may expose a child to, such as cyberbullying and sexting.

"Today's teens are distributing electronically nude self-portraits, in a practice called 'sexting' if it is done by cell phone. And this latest trend has parents and school administrators rightfully worried " (Stop Child Predators, 2009).

     My family obtained a set of cell phones yesterday and used up 97 minutes of our monthly allotment of 700 in the first day. So, how do you prevent a child from racking up minutes on a cell phone? First, make sure that your child's cell phone includes the capability for you to restrict access and usage. All cell phones must be capable of placing 911 calls even if the phone has been disabled by the carrier for not paying the bill, this is one service that is very beneficial to a child but the child must be aware of 911 policies (ie. do not call 911 because you did not get your order of fries at McDonalds).

     We set up our daughter's phone with restrictions on incoming and outgoing calls; she can only place and receive calls to or from individuals added to her contacts list and we control the numbers on the list. Currently, the only people on the list are mom and dad so there is no charge for the calls because our plan includes unlimited mobile-to-mobile calls.

     Placing restrictions on applications like text-messages, pictures, and video will also help protect a child. With such restrictions. cyberbullying and sexting will not be an issue.  Child-predators will also not be able to contact your child via the child's cellphone.

     One last pro, many of the newer cell phones have built-in locating devices.  These have been included to enable the geographic location capability of the 911 service, called E911 for cell phones.  This application can also be enabled to locate the phone whenever the phone is powered on.  There are applications available that permit a parent to view the location of the child's phone on a map.  This is especially advantageous should the child come up missing.  Authorities may be able to locate the child by viewing the map, as long as the child is carying the phone and it is turned on.

     There is however a drawback to the location services of cell-phones; there is the remote chance that a hacker or child-predator could break into the phone and use the tracking mechanism to locate and track the geographic location of the child.  However, with the previously mentioned restrictions, an unauthorized individual would have a dificult time determining who the phone belongs to or whether the user is a child.

     Whether a child is responsible enough to have a cell phone or what age a child should receive one depend on the maturity level of the child; you decide.