Let’s be honest.
Everyone at some time or another has gotten a scandalous text, whether it’s been PG-13 or R-rated.
For the occasional time when you can’t be together in person, but you’re still in the mood to, you know, have some fun, you can “do it” via text.
The problem with this, though, is that cell phones conversations don’t always stay private.
Let’s get even more honest.
You’ve probably been sending these so-called “sexts” since what, seventh or eighth grade?
These were the years when absolutely no one was permitted to see your phone, especially your parents.
Interestingly enough, though, companies are working to prevent these “PG-13” or “R-rated” texts from being sent, in order to save the minds of youths around the world.
Apple last week was awarded a patent that aims to prevent dirty -minded texts from ever seeing the light of day and parents are in complete control.
It works like this: parents program words onto an app that when received via text on a cell phone are immediately deleted.
For instance, if “banana” was a banned word and someone sent “I want a banana nut muffin,” the entire text would never be received on the child’s phone.
Parents can also set the text to be sent to themselves for further scrutiny. I foresee this becoming extremely popular for parents around the country to use, because who wants to see their thirteen year-old daughter having sexual conversations with the boy next door?
But, honestly, I feel like there needs to be limits on its usage.
I remember those times in middle school when we would sit in class and use profane language through texts about the teacher or talk trash about the new kid.
I feel like it sculpted who I am today, not negatively, necessarily, but still it made me, me.
If parents become involved in the every motion of a child, they’ll never have the opportunity to become their own person.
They’ll never experience the mistake of sending a bad text to the wrong person and then trying to cover it up with some lame excuse.
They’ll never feel the smile across their face when the person they like sends them something sweet, regardless if it’s plain language or sext.
It still happens and it’s something that, like braces, I feel everyone should experience.
The idea of privacy in America seems to be flying out the window.
While this app will probably only effect younger teenagers in the beginning, it could quite soon be affecting college students too.
I, for one, know that I don’t pay my own phone bill and if my parents decided one day to start checking up on my texts, the end result probably wouldn’t be so awesome.
Currently, I have some 200,000 texts on my iPhone and I love being able to go back and read and reread conversations I’ve had with people over the past few months.
I’m not necessarily worried about someone finding my phone and reading them, because I just don’t care enough to worry about it.
What is on my phone should be my business and what is on your phone is obviously your business.
The patent filed has still not been put into use, but watch out for it in the near future. Just remember: every time you get a naughty text someone else could be reading it, that includes your parents!
Todd Sanborn can be reached at toddalan@me.com.