Time Magazine reports: “Whatever people thought the first time they held a portable phone the size of a shoe in their hands, it was nothing like where we are now, accustomed to having all knowledge at our fingertips. A typical smart phone has more computing power than Apollo 11 when it landed a man on the moon. In many parts of the world, more people have access to a mobile device than to a toilet or running water; for millions, this is the first phone they’ve ever had. In the U.S., close to 9 in 10 adults carry a mobile, leaving its marks on body, mind, and spirit. There’s a smart-phone gait: the slow sidewalk weave that comes from being lost in conversation rather than looking where you’re going. Thumbs are stronger, attention shorter, temptation everywhere: we can always be, mentally, digitally, someplace other than where we are.”

When it comes down to it, either we and our kids control our cell phones, or our cell phones control us.  Here our 10 rules for children and cell phones and a cell phone contract for your children to sign.

Huddle up with your children tonight and say:  “My biggest concern with you having a cell phone is ___.  I say that because ____.”