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SMS Text Messaging & Youth Debt One

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the american-kids-really-do-suck-at-math dept.

securitas writes "The New York Times' Lisa W. Foderaro reports on the impact of SMS text messaging and resulting debt on America's youth. The predictable but seldom-considered effect of the recently available technology combined with the social role instant messaging and SMS play are leading to bills that youth and parents alike can't afford. 'Many high school and college students accustomed to sending unlimited instant messages on their computers do not adapt easily to text messaging's pay-per-message format, and end up with unexpectedly high bills' ranging from $300 to $800 per month. One school principal says that 'many students were blindsided by costs associated with text-messaging and other features, like customized ring tones"

7 of 471 comments (clear)

  1. Responsibility by AlexTheBeast · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wah, wah, wah.

    You could say the same thing for cell phones in general.

    I had to "work-off" my long distance phone bills in the BBS days...

    You set the limits as a parent... and if the kid goes over it, he/she pays.

    It's called growing up.

    1. Re:Responsibility by beagle · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yup. I mean - oh, the horror of learning that things in life really aren't free!

      This is a story?

      PS - there was an article in the local paper recently about how "the fees add up fast." Indeed they do, and this is why I don't have many of these monthly-fee services.

  2. one simple solution by kraut · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Pay as you go phones. Pay for the credit upfront, and when it's used up, you stop until you can buy more from your pocket money.

    --
    no taxation without representation!
    1. Re:one simple solution by Seumas · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm 27 and I don't own a cell phone. I never have. I've only used one a few times. I'm a software engineer for a big corporation required to provide 24x7 responses. To that end, I wear a $10/mo company-paid two-way pager.

      Carrying a cell-phone around strikes me as needless baggage and excessive availability. I prefer not to have to be reachable by every human being on earth every moment of every day. I'd like to consider my time sipping a coffee and reading the paper in the local cafe on a Saturday morning as _my_ time. Nobody should ever need to reach me so urgently that I need to carry a device that would permit disruption of that.

      I understand why UPS drivers need a cell. I understand why cab-drivers need to. I can even understand why a CEO or an IT manager might. But beyond that, it's just a frivolous toy. Children managed to keep in touch with their parents and let them know where they were and what htey were doing for decades prior to this without posessing cell phones.

      If I had a child, I can't imagine them providing any viable excuse as to why I should purchase a cell phone for them and pay the bill. And as their parent, I would not let them get one and pay for it themselves for the simple fact that I want to avoid them putting themselves into debt before even seeking out college loans a few years down the road.

      Why six year olds and fifteen year olds are carrying them around like a house-key is beyond me.

  3. Pay to recieve SMS? by MPHellwig · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So , if understand this correctly,in the US you have to pay for sms you send and recieve,even without knowing that you wanted to recieve that message?
    Do you guys also have to pay for recieving post (with a stamp)?

    1. Re:Pay to recieve SMS? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Recieving mail is free. Most cell phone plans, recieving text messages is free, sending costs. However, kids will use them at school like IM clients, so they can talk to their friends without the teacher noticing (I'm in High School, I see it a lot). They'll hold the cell phone under the desk, and talk back and forth. Having gotten used to IM responses, short messages are used. $0.10 for "LOL" is excessive in my mind, but they don't seem to realize it (until they get the bill!)

  4. Re:Shocking truth by ahknight · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's not even that, it's that they're using it wrong, too. For instance, with Sprint I can pay $10/mo. and get unlimited SMS messages. For $10. Screw this $800 crap, with just a little planning and a little forethought they wouldn't pay more than $60 a month for the whole package.

    It's just another sign that people are stupid.