I heard your comment to a mother regarding a teen's lack of need for a cell phone and I decided I had to share an incident we had. 

A couple years ago, my husband and I took in my cousin who was just a year older than our daughter 17 and 16, respectively. Initially, we provided her with the same luxuries as our daughter, but after finding out my cousin was using the cell phone, laptop and iPod to connect to the Internet and send sexually inappropriate content texts, video chats, etc. to men she didn't know, we took all her possible Internet access away from her. She responded by going to school the next day and causing such a fuss the school contacted the state to question her placement with us. 

When we spoke with the school, we found out not only did her case worker vouch for us, but the school actually asked my husband, "What could she have possibly done that would warrant all of her electronics to be taken away?" The school went over the case worker's head to their supervisor.  We were dumbfounded! This was just the final straw! We immediately contacted the state and told them to come pick her up. 

She is now 20 years old, living with her drug-addicted boyfriend and 33 weeks pregnant. Another child for the state to raise. My husband said, if she were to knock on our door asking for help, we would open the door, take the baby, and shut the door. Thank you, Dr. Laura! Christine

Thank you, Dr. Laura! 

Christine