What to do if you find dirty text messages on your child's phone?

While adults exchanging dirty text messages in a relationship can do wonders for a relationship, things become a lot more complicated if you find these kinds of messages on your teenage child's phone. Yes, mobile phones make it easier for parents to make sure that the kids are always safe, but at the same time, many parents dread as soon as they hand their kids their first phone. Even if after taking all the precautions, if you still find some dirty text messages on your child's phone then follow the steps given below to handle the situation suitably.

Keep calm

If you find that your teenager is sexting or exchanging dirty text messages with someone through their smartphone, you need to stay calm and talk to them in a non-judgemental way. Instead of blaming them, you should have a discussion to make sure that at least the messages were consensual, not related to cyberbullying. Understand that it might take some time for your child to open up, but once they trust you, they will be ready to listen to you.

Try to understand your kid's situation

While a teenager involved in sexting is not okay as it comes with many risks, you should try to understand your child's motivation instead of making assumptions. Don't blame the child or bring up their past mistakes, instead try to understand how difficult it might have been for your teenager to stand against peer pressure.

Make them aware

Once you understand the situation, it is now time to make your kids aware of how sexting can put them in trouble. If required, give them examples of cases where pictures exchanged through smartphones have landed people in trouble in the past. Also, without sounding judgemental make them aware of how girlfriends/boyfriends sometimes blackmail their partners over dirty text messages. Once your kid understands all the risks involved in sexting, they will think twice before getting involved in such activity. Also, use this situation as an opportunity to set out online safety guidelines, like not talking to strangers, not exchanging nudes, and much more.

Set limits

Even after you have made your kid aware of the risks involved in sexting, there are chances that they might not stop with their behaviour. Therefore, you must set limits on them when it comes to them using their smartphones. You should not only limit their access to their smartphones depending on their age but also monitor their activities so they are safe.

Give them some space

Although you should set some limits on your teenager for their safety, you should also give them some space to allow them to learn from their own mistakes. If you do not do this, your kid will become irritable, and they might start doing things behind your back.

Following the above-given steps, you can make sure that your child is safe in the online world and does not involve in sex chat at a young age. There is no denying the fact that sex text chat is not a good idea for teenagers who cannot differentiate right from young, but things are different when it comes to mature adults as adults sexting will help in more ways than you can imagine. So if you are a mature adult, get ready to have some fun with sex texting.