Technology the New Child's Play by:Cyndi Lundeberg

New communication capabilities connect people in a way unmatched by previous means

. No longer are conversations confined to a handset with only words todays technologies now offer the options of texting, sending picture mail or even video chatting, simulating the experience of actually hanging out with the person. While the aim of these new technologies accomplishes its main purpose of bringing people together, sometimes the people brought together causes more problems than good.

Unfortunately in recent news we have seen how these communication advancements like VoIP phones and picture mail have caused a breached area where children are unable to be protected. Philadelphia became the home of the very first "Sexting" case to reach a federal appeals court, due to the confiscation of cell phones which contained an incriminating photo of a young girl. Officials at the high school confiscated the cell phones of five students ranging from 11 to17 years of age.

Sadly, the cases of teens making the mistake of inappropriately using picture mail pales in comparison to the kinds of other problems we have seen with the main streaming of these communications. While the gravity of misconduct through the use of cell phones is a serious one, a more problematic one due to voice over ip phone system like Skype which provide the extended option of video. While incriminating pictures can be traumatic enough for an adolescent, video opens up a whole new plethora of problems.

Residential VoIP service developments like Skype have seen a rise in popularity due to their easy accessibility and elimination of normal phone bill charges like peak hours and long distance. Skype, the largest web-provided video chatting provider, has seen new competition from ChatRoulette, a similar website which differs only because it randomly selects who users chat.

Because of the randomness of ChatRoulette and the probability the users will never be in contact with each other again,the service has prompted some less than decent behavior. The rumored nudity and lewd acts which have become synonymous with ChatRoulette's reputation, which prompted Tech Crunch a technology review website to perform a study to verify the validity of these claims. Tech Crunch found that about 15% of the time a user will be brought into a chat yielding something R rated or worse. Of the lewd acts observed, over 92% were male.

If the afore mentioned facts haven't caused enough parental concern, the following statistics Tech Crunch provided may. Of the ChatRoulette users, 70% are young adults, and the huge remainder are middle aged men. Of the young adults 1 in 5 are under 20 years old, with the average user being a younger female than male. What can be concluded from this information is older persons are attracted to this website because of the younger crowd, which at the moment provides adolescents with unmonitored pornographic images.

Obviously the creation of any new invention is bound to have a few problems which need to be worked out andnewer communication inventions equivocally fall into this category. As cell phones move to incorporate Skype-like programs to cell phones, "sexting" problems could soon be a thing of the past, replaced by more serious violations.

Parents should be proactive in their approach of teaching children about the repercussions of the inappropriate use of today's technology.. The Internet disperses information far and wide which is never fully erased, so informing your child of the dangers may encourage them to think twice about the type of activities they use these technologies for. The best way a parent can protect their child is to be involved and aware of how their children are using these new technologies.

About the author

Cyndi Lundeberg is a writer based in San Diego, California. She writes extensively for an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs such as phone systems & voip service at Resource Nation.

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