This generation of teens are occupied with countless hours in front of screens: texting, checking social media and watching videos. Phones have become one of the most important aspects in the lives of adolescents, but are also a privilege as they can easily be taken away as a form of discipline. There are apps and trackers available to parents that help monitor their children’s phone usage; while some parents are more lenient, others enforce extreme regulations.

   Taking away phone data, going through text messages, and demanding passwords are all examples of the actions stricter parents enforce. Sophomore Violet Wang has personally experienced all the listed restrictions and far more. Wang discloses the overbearing struggle of having a phone that belongs to her but is managed and monitored by her parents.

   “My parents are very strict. They go through my photos sometimes. They just always know my password so they can do whatever they want. I don’t know if they look through my messages when they take my phone. I don’t know what they do. I get my phone taken away a lot,” said Wang.

   Parents have various motives when establishing certain conditions for their children’s phones. Mari Register, a freshman, has dealt with many consequences that resulted in having her iPhone 6S confiscated and replaced with a flip phone. Register reveals the reasons behind her parents imposing strict repercussions.  “I think my parents are so strict because they are very concerned about me being self-conscious about being on social media and seeing all the ‘perfect girls.’ They already know I’m self-conscious about my body and how I look, so they’re very careful about letting me see that; they don’t want me to get my phone back,” said Register.

  Certain parents handle phone monitoring to a smaller extent. Although Carson Pedlar, a junior, has faced severe ramifications when he fails to communicate with his parents, they are less concerned with his utilization of his phone. Pedlar shares his parents’ leniency in terms of their disciplinary actions for his phone.

    “I had my phone taken away as punishment, it was supposed to be a month, but then grades came back, and I obtained good grades, which brought it down to two weeks. They just take my phone away, but they don’t go through it because that’s my privacy,” said Pedlar.

   The phone frenzy dominates the daily lives of teens of all over the world with Snapchat, Instagram, iMessage and limitless music. While it seems that teens only use their phone for social media purposes, they use it for educational purposes ,as well. Some common scholarly apps are Quizlet, a flashcard study tool to help students with memorization and studying; Duolingo, an app to help students who take a foreign language; Khan Academy, an educational outlet used for test preparation and individual study; Desmos, a graphing utility required in many math courses; Aeries Gradebook, a functional and secure way for students to access their grades; Google Classroom and Google Drive, places to keep electronic documents and pictures commonly used in classes.

   With such a wide variety of media platforms available to teens on their devices, many parents find it necessary to keep an eye on their child’s phone usage. Some parents, on the other hand, care little about the phone’s content but still opt to take away the phone to punish their kid. Ultimately, phone monitoring can be seen as a negative impact on the child’s life; however, some teens are able to recognize and respect their parents’ decision to monitor their phones, as they only follow through with such actions to show their concern and care for their child.

Many children have restrictions regarding their phones and how they use them; these students explain the consequential and beneficial aspects of their parents’ guidelines.