Arizona is considering legislation that would let parents see the text messages on the phones of their children, if they're under the age of 18. The bill is proposed by a state senator who has six daughters -- with understandable concerns for their safety and the safety of other minors who might be victims of harassment or bullying.

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Personally, I don't think kids under the age of 18 need cell phones. The only exception would be a night out with their friends. When I was growing up I was given 3 quarters and told to call home when I needed picking up.

Should parents have the right to go through their kids cellphone text messages?

So long as the parents are paying the phone bill yes, but if it's being paid for by the child with a summer/part-time job, then that's something else altogether. That said, kids deserve their privacy and good/involved parents traditionally don't have to worry (as much) about their children making poor choices while texting.

The thing that I found interesting about the whole idea was, how stupid people who make laws are. If you're kid is up to no good via their cell phone, do you honestly thing they're not smart enough to delete their texts?

Short term non-solution for people to gawk over. If parents spent more time with their kids and became more involved, this wouldn't be an issue. Go ahead and talk to some parents you know, and ask them if they know their kid's closest friend's phone numbers and names. You might be surprised.

That said, I've taken my son's phone away one time, but never read or looked through it.

I have looked through my sons phones/ipods before, didnt know I needed a law to do it. If i think there is a problem that needs to be addressed by going through some of there stuff I will do it, until they have moved out of my house and are living on their own than tough nookies. Even if they pay for it I would still go through it or get involved if I felt I needed to. Again thats as long as they are still living with us.

You're probably a real parent, though.

Ugh, government blows. Leave the parenting to the parents.

Uhh you can do that anyway. Cell phone text messages are not private information at all, ESPECIALLY if it is your kids, and you are paying the bills.

I have looked through my sons phones/ipods before, didnt know I needed a law to do it. If i think there is a problem that needs to be addressed by going through some of there stuff I will do it, until they have moved out of my house and are living on their own than tough nookies. Even if they pay for it I would still go through it or get involved if I felt I needed to. Again thats as long as they are still living with us.

Yup, I agree with you Duece. I have looked through my kids phones before, but it was only at a time that something was going on that I needed to step in on. I don't just go through their stuff for no reason. But if I think I need to, I will.

Ava, you said kids are smart enough to delete. We recently got Ashley a smart phone, it affords her to actually save her messages lol, so she does. If I wanted to I could probably read every single text shes recieved and sent since we bought her this new phone a few months ago. She actually changed the way her phone is set up so she could keep more messages. Sounds good to me lol.

With Ashley, I would probably want to look through her phone from time to time, as she can have boyfriends now. I would want to check up on these what these boys are saying to her, or specifically asking her for. I trust that Ashley would not send pictures of herself (other than face shots) to one of these boys, we've had many talks about boys being the way they are, but damn sure I wanna know if that boy is asking her to!!!