Texting teen? LOL:

Did you cave-in and give your child their own phone for Christmas? Don't worry if you did; many of us do. But now you now face the next challenge: how to manage use of the phone.

It seems they start younger and younger, but you could be faced with a young person in your house you hardly recognise in no time at all. Particularly if a teenager, he or she is likely to text every waking minute of the day and sleep with his or her phone at night. If you don't set some limits around it, chances are you might never have an actual conversation with them ever again.

First of all, explain to them that with rights come responsibilities. 

Then take a look at these two lots of tips to consider for your household: the first one for you, the second one rules you might give your children.

They’re a combination of tips and advice together by one of the many companies that have products to help you monitor or restrict your child’s phone usage. We've put a lot of them together so you can think about and decide which ones suit your family situation the best.

Tips

1. Select features carefully. Select only those phone features appropriate for the age of your child. If it’s not too late, consider giving younger children a featureless phone.
2. Use parental controls. If your child has a smartphone, consider turning on parental controls to restrict use of objectionable websites or to block other social media features.
3. Limit usage. Set time limits on when and where they can use their phones.
4. Don't answer unknown calls. Tell your child not to answer calls or text messages from numbers they don't recognise. Teach them how to block unwanted calls.
5. Pre-program numbers. Make sure their phone has all the important phone numbers, such as all your work and mobile numbers, programmed for easy access.
6. Advocate privacy. Teach your children the importance of keeping their phone number and other family numbers private. Tell them not to post numbers on social media sites like Facebook.
7. Restrict downloads. Make sure children don't download ringtones, games or other content without your consent. Some of these digital downloads can come with viruses or have hidden fees.

Possible rules for your text-crazy child (probably teen!).

1. No texting at the dinner table.
2. No texting while in the car or talking with your family.
3. No texting at events with the family.
4. No texting at any time while in a restaurant with the family.
5. No texting at school (unless at recess, or as otherwise directed by the school policy).
6. No texting in shopping malls or grocery stores while with the family (unless it is to ask a family member not with you a shopping question).
7. No texting after a certain time, eg. 9pm.
8. No texting people who are in the same house as you.
9. No answering friends' texts during the above situations.
10. Any these restrictions results in complete revocation of all texting privileges. 

* LOL = Laugh Out Loud