“Sexting”: a new word in the digital lexicon. And a hot button issue that has piqued the curiosity, ire and concern of everyone from parents to school administrators to policymakers to law enforcement and understandably, mobile carriers such as us. As you may already know, sexting is generally defined as the act of sending sexually explicit photos via cell phones (or over other electronic devices, including computers).
In and of itself, the idea of children sexting is eyebrow-raising. Add to the equation a sender or receiver who is under the age of eighteen and suddenly a problem of ever-growing proportions begins to unfold. Getting the word out to kids about the possible ramifications of sexting is the key. Child pornography charges, a jail sentence and having to register as a sex offender should deter them from sending a racy photo of themselves or someone else. And, even if these legal repercussions were to disappear, the emotional fallout would remain as would the effects such a decision could have on their future.
Our solution: education.
Recently, we partnered with the 
to create a PSA called “Textual Harassment.” The campaign focuses on the subject of “digital dating abuse,” and has been running on mobile, TV and web platforms.
Additionally, we hope to use this blog as a vehicle to drive the latest information, news and expert advice straight to you. Subsequently we encourage you to participate in what we see as an ongoing conversation about this highly sensitive subject.
Let us know what you think.
41 Responses to “Sexting: From Concern to Action”
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Melissa says:
I agree. It would be most helpful if parents could view text messages from the computer rather than directly from the phone in hopes they have not deleted anything.
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holly van hest says:
I’m not a parant but am a concerned citizen. I wonder if someday there could be some type of “block” to install onto phones/pcs/laptops similiar to those used on Review websites. Many review sites disallow certain “bad” words-I was blocked from submitting a review about a new cat litter for using cat poop AND cat poo. One would think that with todays sophisticated gadgets and apps, something will be created, for video, that parents could install to catch & block pornographic objects. May sound silly but think about it – there are apps for everytthing else, why not something to block porn or anything looking remotely similar.
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Ron Mason says:
I agree, the log that is currently available on Verizon only shows the number and whether it was an incoming or outgoing text or picture. As parents, we should have the ability to see actual content being sent from and to our children. It could be setup as an option by Verizon, parents who don’t care if Verizon captures this data and displays it to account owners could opt in, parents who don’t can choose to not opt in.
Advising our children that we have this ability would also deter problems before they occur, rather than trying to fix something that has already happened. -
Kim Kobus says:
I was looking into a program whereby I could monitor my girls’ text and pictures receiving and outgoing. No cell phone company offers such a service, parents would have to set up a spyware on the children’s phone. This is very disappointing.
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Bob says:
I am wondering, if we go online to do personal stuff, for example, and our employer finds out we are so bummed because someone is watching over our shoulder – we feel our privacy was invaded to some degree. Now to what degree do we have a right to know – only to the point of protecting our children or must they ( the children ) give up their right to privacy to their partents simply because they are under the age of 18. Do parents really have a right to know simply because they want to? What about the right to privacy guaranteed to all US Citizens – it don’t say those over 18 only… right?
Sometimes we may not like the law but shouldn’t we have to stay within its contraints as well as apply those laws unto others? -
THANK you Ad Council for efforts to inform. As a parent who has seen this first hand, there aren’t words to describe how frightening it is to learn that complete strangers (“bad people”) can get access to your child through their cell phone. In today’s digital age, simple monitoring is not enough. There are days I’d like to pull the covers over my head and go back to the ’60′s!
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Azzie says:
Sexting isn’t always pictures. Included in the term is also word messages, but still with similar content. The only problem I have with filters about this sort of thing is that they often do not work. Look at any internet filter and you will see that it often causes more problems than it solves, with erroneous blocks and no way of unblocking for the parent. The way to deal with this, I think, is to just keep tabs on what they text. Plus, do you really WANT to be spying on your kid’s every move? Think about it. You can see where they are at any time. Okay, that’s a safety thing, you’re a parent, you should know anyway. You can see who they text, when, and when they text your child. No big deal. But now you can see what they text, and to who. If that was me, I would feel untrusted and generally betrayed. If I was in that position, it would feel like a violation of my privacy and rights. Think of how YOU would feel in that situation. Chances are you wouldn’t be too content with it. That’s how many teenagers would feel. Sexting is obviously a problem, but I can’t help but think that there would be a better answer than wiretapping for text messages.
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Yvonne says:
In this day and age, we NEED to keep tabs on our children – monitoring their texts, monitoring what they see and read. I know we can’t shelter them from everything, however, if there was a way to block explicit texts, I WOULD do it. And I don’t care how my child feels about it. That’s why they are CHILDREN and we are adults. We have to protect them from ugly people and sometimes, from themselves. As far as a violation of privacy, it sucks to be them. They want privacy? Move out!
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Richard says:
In reply to Bob’s comment. Parents have every right. It is our job to protect our children as best we can. If there was a way to monitor everything sent and received from a phone I might alow my daoughter to have one.
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Tom says:
I agree with Richard – it is our job to protect our kids. I wonder if the parents of the girl who hung herself last week because of sexting would trade the child’s “right to privacy” for the ability to protect her? I think so! If you’re concerned about a child’s right to privacy – you may not be doing your best as a parent. Parenting is hard and requires us to make hard choices and yes, sometimes be the bad guy. So the way we handled this with our daughter was to let her know we could see the number of messages that come in and out of her phone and if that doesn’t jibe with what is on her phone – then we know she’s been deleting them. At that point – she’s in jeopardy of losing text privileges. I don’t need to see her content all the time, but she knows we may go in and check it now and then so she’s going to think twice before she sends something and will also let her friends know she’s not allowed to accept certain things. We also make sure we know all the numbers she’s dialing. So maybe we’re strict, but I want to keep my daughter safe.
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Gordon says:
This is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard. The idea of a kid being charged with trafficking porography or being put on a sexual offenders registry for sending a racey photo of THEMSELVES to whoever they choose is appalling. And the idea that parents should be able to read their kid’s messages is equally offensive. You do not own your children. You cannot control everything they do. This idea that it’s to protect them is rubbish. You’re nothing but a bunch of busybodies. If you teach your children about these things in an effective way, with love, kindness and concern, you wouldn’t have to spy on them. You can’t make up for your own bad parenting by spying on your kids. Finally, who is going to spy on the parents of these kids? The vast majority of sexting is done by adults. If I were a kid and found out that my parents were spying on me, I would monitor THEIR communications. I’m sure some of these overzealous parents would back off if their kids found out who Daddy’s mistress is or how much coke mom does. You’re all projecting your own dubious behavior onto your kids. Love them, teach them well and mind your business.
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SSG D says:
KIM, there a program called time restriction. As a military parent I use this. you get to set the time that the phone can be used. I shut down my son’s phone while in school and limit to a gew hours a week. It is also a great tool when you need to punish them (drives them crazy).
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Julie Samberg says:
I am a parent of 3 and though i find it hard to trust my children sometimes, i know that reading through their text messages online isn’t the way to go. Every parent thinks differently and in a sense we all have been at this age. Our children must be sat down and given the talk about what they should be sending back in forth, but it may not get into their heads. Some of you parents may be stubborn and won’t agree with what i am about to say, but you need to put yourself back in that age, in high school, in jr. high. We all were immature and have had crushes and wanted them to like you back so much. Thats normally how our children feel, not that they are “sluts” but that they feel pressured because if they don’t say the right thing, then this person won’t like them anymore. I personally don’t want to see every text, or picture my children have sent from their phones, i may read through their texts every so often through their phones, but if i took so much time just to read everything deleted from their phones, then i might as well take away texting and picture messaging from the equation. And thats taking it too far.
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admin says:
SSGD, A Time Restriction program is available to all Verizon Wireless Customers at http://www.vzw.com/usagecontrols.
Time Restrictions limit and control your child’s use of his or her cell phone during a certain time of day or day of week.
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Kari says:
Why are you all so concerned with how your children FEEL? This isn’t about their feelings, this is about their protection. Using the cell phone is a privilige and NOT a right. If I pay that bill, I have every reason to look at my child’s phone and read her text messages and look at her pictures. It’s called parenting. You are their parent and not their friend! Children are immature and cannot always recognize danger when they see it or are involved in it. When in a bad situation they are often overwhelmed and confused; not capable of making a sound mature decision. Case in point, a 13 year old boy from my daughter’s youth group had threatened to kill himself and I intercepted the text message. If I had not become involved the child would have harmed himself. Both my daughter and her friend that was also privy were confused and scared. There is a “culture of children” and you all need to understand that protecting their privacy and their friend’s privacy often comes before their safety. Pre-teens and teenagers are NOT mature enough to make the kind of decisions that we do as adults.
Just because you remember feeling violated and spied on as a kid doesn’t mean that your parents weren’t justified. Our children are children in an age where technology is touching every part of our lives. Our parents didn’t have to worry about sexting and cyberbullying. They didn’t have to worry about their children’s personal information and images being put out into the world wide web. I’m not advocating ZERO privacy for your child; sometimes they need their space. What they don’t need is parents who are so concerned about stepping on their kid’s toes that they miss the big picture-which is their safety.
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I strongly feel that the parents are the children’s first teachers. As parents and teachers they need to guide and protect their children. They will need to be caring, loving and safegaurding their children as parents: teaching, guiding and monitoring results as teachers. Thus the chidren will be loved, protected, guided along to meet the challenges of time within acceptable boundaries. Children are very sensitive and they are able to judge who has their interst at heart. Parents must set a good personal role model to enable children to relate to them easily and naturally.
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Rebecca says:
I agree whole-heartedly with Kari. Even though my husband and I have taught our kids the rights and wrongs in life they don’t always make the right decision. We are currently involved with the police regarding a predator who lured my daughter via her cell phone. It is very unfortunate that my daughter has been victimized, and had I been able to intercept or review her text messages intermittently, we could have avoided this whole situation. And who was the predator?…the sales guy at the phone store. Did she know she was in danger?.. NO. There should definitely be a way to help our kids be safe while they enjoy the progress of technology. It’s our jobs as parents to protect our kids, whether they like it our not. My husband and I are good role models, but that doesn’t always cut it, now does it?
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Cary says:
I agree with Kari (above). The cell phone is a privilege, not a right…and I pay for it so it is actually MY cell phone. I let my kids know that I will be checking on texts. They are learning how to deal with all kinds of issues and so are we as parents. But we can not give up our responsibility to keep them safe.
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Professor Jay says:
I do not think Verzion would want the liability of storing the photos sent and received via text messaging / MMS.
Not to mention, if they set a system up to do this, all of a sudden you open the door for tools that could be abused if access is ever granted to unauthorized people.
If people are so worried about spying on their children, I suggest you instead teach them some morals. I can’t believe any child with morals and a proper upbringing would take dirty photos of themselves and send them via text message. Teach them to have class, morality and respect for themselves. Teach by example, block out filth on the television as well. Tell them those programs are for the low class types of the world, ie, porn, Real Sex and all that dirt that is pushed down the throats of people.
Boy, the United States is in real trouble if your telling us that the majority of our youth have turned into “Girls gone wild” types.
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Max says:
The concept of children having a right to privacy on their cell phones is misguided. Society restricts their privileges/rights in a number of ways: purchasing alcohol, voting, driving, contracts, etc. Cell phones aren’t really that private anyway – the signals can be intercepted and the sender has no control over recipient forwarding. Finally, it’s usually the parent who is footing the bill (Bob – your employer has the right to monitor communications that it pays for – if you don’t like that, use your own dime to pay for personal communications).
Society makes these restrictions to protect children because their judgment skills are still developing. We are struggling with the decision to give our almost 12 year old a phone – nearly all her friends have one and she is left out of the texting conversations – silly in some sense but a reality. While we trust her and feel we’ve taught her good ‘morals’, we can’t automatically trust everyone she communicates with or the ‘group think’/peer pressure that can make rational people say & do irrational things, particularly when they are so young.
Having a secure online log of text & image communications for parental access would be an ideal tool and would not be that different from work email (Jay – I suppose you don’t do any online financial activity if you’re so concerned about unauthorized access). Time control is a fairly blunt tool that is a set up for conflict. Any carrier that offered secure logging of text messages for parental monitoring would likely get our business.
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Dolli says:
Professor Jay, it is obvious you do not have children, or you have your head in the sand. I have been and educator and a parent for 13 years. And yes as a parent you must teach your children morals, class and respect for themselves. You are right modeling the behavior is necessary as well, however, it takes more than that. I will say it. . . as a parent you have to instill a little fear in your child to ensure that they will behave according to your standards. As far as a child under the age of 18 having rights, yes they do, however, privacy from the parent is not one of them in my opinion. I am not saying I rifle through my daughters life. However, if she proves to me she cannot be trusted to behave and act accordingly, she loses that privilege of privacy. Finally, it is not spying. . that indicates that you are acting without the knowledge of the other party. Most parents I know make sure their children are fully aware that they are keeping tabs on them.
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TB says:
this is very rediculous. you’re invading privacy…which makes you a snoop. children make mistakes…but that doesn’t mean spying on their every move is the answer. if you do so, then you must have nothing better to do with your time. and richard….be careful what you wish for, i know many teens who do get fed up and move out. stop snooping and start building trust with your child, instead of being naggy and overprotective. its rediculous, time wasting, and just makes you look bad and makes your children regret the way you parent. and the girl who hung herself obvioulsy had many many other problems besides sexting…so dont try and make it into something its not. sorry to be so blunt but yes sexting is bad but you shouldnt be spying you should teach your son or daughter so you dont have to deal with over the top sexting. and btw if you’ve raised your kid right then a little pda and affectionate (sexual like) texting your chiold may have with their significant other is perfectly natural. dont be a hypocrite you talked with and did stuff with your boyfriend or girlfriend as a teen…so stop acting liek its anything new. im not saying let your child do whatever they please but give them the space you wished you had as a kid. seriously. [Admin: EDITED for vulgarity]
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FedUpParent says:
I am so glad that this is a free country, TB, and I don’t have to raise my kids according to your standards and morals. I have the constitutional right to raise them as I see fit. As a consumer, I want to be able to see what my children are texting, regardless of what it is or if it is classified as “sexting”. They can have privacy when they are adults. Until then, raising them is my responsibility. The bottom line is that Verizon has a large customer base that would value, and more importantly, PAY FOR the ability to track what our kids are texting. Deal with it.
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Jennie says:
I totally agree with Kari and some of the others. When a child is under 18 it is a privilege to have privacy. When I took my psychology class I became well aware as to why myself at that age and children now do the things they do. I have a teenage daughter and I raise her well. I’ve taught her everything she needs to know about life, she watches shows such as CSI and SVU. She knows what could and would happen if the wrong decisions are made and yet I have found her to do the opposite of what I have taught her. When I completely trust her is when bad decisions happen and then I have to put my foot down and monitor her. I hate doing this, but because of the teenage biology it must happen. The frontal lobe of the brain does not develop well into the mid-20′s. This is the part of reasoning and common sense. No matter how much you teach your children morals, values, etc. they will do the opposite of it because they simply do not have the function to process this information correctly. All we can hope for is that the message is stored and then used when faculties are developed. Until then we have to protect our children. Do everything we can to ensure safety. Some of you say it’s a violation; well tell that to the parent who was too relaxed with their child and lost them to a predator or to their own guilt for allowing themselves to be victimized by others through sexting and naked pics e-mailed through the school community of “friends”. For the most part I’d say that those that really oppose either are the teenagers fighting a thing such as this, people without children, or the predators themselves who are most at fear of having this happen. For me, I’m sorry, my daughter is the rarest thing on Earth (an endangered species). There is nothing to replace her and me being privileged to be her parent makes my sole job to teach and protect and I will continue to do so until she’s out of school. After that, all I can do is hope that what I’ve taught her has sunk in and she learns before anything bad can happen to her. And if you ask her how she feels, “yeah, I don’t like it, but I understand.”
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akid says:
smfh dis is crazy u ppl sound lik stalkers doin all dis spyn wud jus make ur kids hide more things frm u & do even worse things. Wen u keep ur kid on lock they turn outbeing the freakiest things ever. so just stop freakin complaining & deal wit it.or dnt pay for a phone if u wana kno evrysingle thing ur kid is doin there prolly doin things u cud neva imagine in skewl rite now.
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wen u build trust ur kids tell u more
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jenny says:
im a teenager okay first of all i would like to say its not all ways you childs fault cause i got my txting taken away and its been 7 months and it wasnt even my fault someone eles was sexting me and your child shouldnt put up with you telling oh whatevr still thats stupid seeing messages thru the computer gosh some of you parents doont trust your kids maybe thats how come there like that cause you cant trust them… im just saying some parents are wack and if you start doing this your child will hate you… i hate my parents when they took away my txting so i dont know if you parents want that…
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Joe says:
Let your kid have some privacy. Just cause you pay the bills for your house doesnt mean you should control his room either ex: leave the door always open. Everyone needs privacy and im sure you wouldnt want your kids to hear every conversation that you parents have about your failing marriages.
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steve says:
It’s funny how “the parents” get the bad rap for all this. I too am a parent, I have a 16 year old boy who loves to text, to the tune of nearly 11,000 per month. Do I ever wonder what he says, of course I do, is it my right to know, I would think so, I pay the bill, I buy the phone, he lives in my house, I pay for his clothes, meals, etc. As a parent I feel that is my responsibility, the food, shelter, and clothing stuff. The phone on the other hand is a privilege, as a parent I have the choice to let him text, it costs me $10 a month to let him text all he wants. Aside from the 11,000 texts per month, he also receives over 100 pictures per month, I have no idea what the pictures are, but he is a 16 year old boy, so my best guess is that they are not 100% innocent.
You speak of trust, well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but trust is a two way street. As parents, we want to trust our children, so what are we supposed to do when they continue to break that trust doing things they are not supposed to be doing. I don’t follow him around, read his texts, or emails, but he has a habit of going to places on the internet that he shouldn’t be, texting when he shouldn’t be, going places where he’s not supposed to go. Is he a bad kid, no, he’s a great kid, he’s just being a teenager. And I do understand that, but that doesn’t keep me from wanting to know what he is up to – as a parent, it is my responsibility to keep him as safe as possible. And I’m sure that is why several of the parents above would like to monitor what their child is getting into.
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I completly agree! We NEED to know more, be more involved. You are the only people who can seem to do this for us & NOBODY wants to help!!! As parents we are responsible for what they do/say online & texts etc. but yet we are unable to without a court order to have the chance to read anything our children get or send via cell phones. As parents I would think you would want the same things for you & your children??. Being a teen is not what it was when I was there & it wasn’t that long ago. They hear,learn, say & do so much. If we had the ability to view these things it would help some of the “out of sight out of mind” issues. We aren’t asking to be nosey or invasive we just want to be good parents. Parents are told we should be more “on top” of things so they don’t happen, help us. Help us get what we pay for, to have access to our plan. We can access so much with our phones with your website, which is great. However, I think it would be great to just be able to view this aswell. HELP US PROTECT OUR KIDS, PLEASE!!!
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I want to add, maybe this would help teach kids some of what is lacking in a lot of kids today. Values, respect, responsibility, that the things they do & say have consequences. Sometimes they don’t see them right away or maybe even something like having to be a reg. sex offender. They may do something no so bright, something small & you can catch it right then. Wouldn’t you rather catch that small stupid thing that they probably didn’t fully comprehend maybe someone else even sent from their phone, instead of having to hire a lawyer to fight them having to be registered as a sex offender??? My kids privacy isn’t worth that! But maybe the person who wrote about giving them their privacy has that absolutly perfect kids who will not/has not ever let someone else use their phone truely has nothing to worry about. I love my kids unconditionally, but they are just that kids. They are hard wired to do stupid things, we are there to protect them! Thats all I want the chance to do as much as I can whenever I can-thats my job as the mom.
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qtrcowpony says:
I agree. The only way, as parents, to monitor this is to have a way to track and see all messages, incoming and outgoing. I think that a service provided by the carrier, similar to the family locator, would be a wonderful solution. Parents still need to be parents and be diligent about checking. But teens are smart and make sure they delete anything questionable in most cases. Parents need to be able to get a “heads up” in a timely manner to avoid a costly mistake! By being able to check messages anytime, they could see if something needs to be derailed before it happens!
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Caleb Godwin says:
In response to your messages about “Parents should be able to view anything their kids do”, I believe that it is morally wrong. It is a violation of their privacy, and they should be left alone. There are programs you can install on phones that send you a copy of every text. But, this should not be a default feature in Verizon.
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ShawnMarie says:
There is already one phone network that allows one to view online actual messages sent via text. I think that all networks should get on the wagon with this as it helps parents monitor potential unsafe behaviour and nip it in the bud. Most kids will erase the messages from their phones so being able to view online actual messages would be seriously beneficial. This would also help for parents to set parental controls on internet…and be able to view any and ALL sites visited by a administrator control… allowing you to bypass a password… for example step daughter lives on the site myspace… I want to know what she is doing on there..but she’s password protected it – a standard thing I know… but we had the ability to slide in on the pc after she’d walked away and viewed some email of her regarding drinking and pot. I want to.. as a parent and administrator be able to see the entire content of all messages under my computers and phones. This is the only way I can continue to keep my kids safe.
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Caleb how many kids do you have? I have 4 girls ages 7-17. Before having personal computers kids read books and wrote to each other. I read the same notes written and was able to be more in the loop. I honestly don’t see how you feel it’s “morally wrong”. Kids are kids and have no rights to that sort of privacy. You leave a kid alone and you’re bound to find yourself some trouble. This digital age is a mixed blessing. A good parent is not only in good communication with their kids, they are informed. Every kid makes choices and mistakes. It’s our job as parents to oversee them and I can clearly see that you must have run amuck or had seriously liberal parents.
Joe mentions kids should have privacy? Well, you know what… even if I had tenants I still have the right to know what’s going on in MY house. I pay these bills… I am the one who would be held liable and legally responsible for any untoward activities.
Yes, we need to know what our kids are doing, in this technological age.
Jenny posts about hating her parents for taking away her phone. Seriously! When they pay the bills…they can buy their own phones n phone plans. Until then…anyone on my network be it pc, mac, or phone/text… is subject to my review of any/all places visited and things texted. An uninformed parent is a very bad thing.
should this be a default feature? Perhaps verizon can set up a separate plan. Adding a new line to your plan …. vs … adding a line for your kids…with option of parental control. It could be that simple.
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Caleb, you’re obviously young. Please look up the word “morally.” If you want to talk morals then it would be the complete opposite of what you said. Privacy has nothing to do with morals. Privacy is a write among adults and a privilege among children, i.e. 18 or younger. I don’t understand why children seem to think that their privacy is a right. Perhaps if they were paying rent, utilities, for the phone itself, etc. then yes it would be a right, but until then it is right of the parent to monitor if they wish. What is moral is protecting our children today. It is way to easy for predators to become involved with children and take advantage of them. I don’t read my daughter’s texts; however, if I find my child acting strangely or come across something that sends up red flags I would like access to those texts in order to protect her. My daughter is fairly honest with me. She’s told me about pics that boys have sent her of certain body parts. Any more there are girls who’s pics get passes around virally only to make them commit suicide. There are monsters who are predatory and before you know it have lured the child into a situation that they can not escape. One you have your own children you will understand; all of you. But until then, don’t question why a good parent wants to protect their child. In addition to the violation of privacy, the Constitution gives a person the right to privacy in their own home. It doesn’t stipulate a child’s privacy in their own bedroom. You want a right to privacy…get your own place.
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James says:
I agree with all the parents that think they should be able to view their kids texts. They are children and not yet mature enough to know what is right and wrong. Even if we don’t veiw their texts, just having them know that we can would make a big difference in how they use the texting. We basically got a phone for our kids, so that we could keep tabs on them more easily, but not so they could text to anyone on anything they wanted.
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A Parent says:
This conversation has been going on for three months an there has been nothing new.
The children and pedophiles want their rights, and parents want to protect their children.
Basically if Verizon would provide a service to make all texts and pictures available to whomever is paying the bill any parent would sign any waver in blood, and pay any price. No price is too high to protect our children.
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Sheree says:
It is my responsibility as a parent to raise, nurture, train, educate, protect, prepare and communicate with my children. Parents have been doing it since the beginning of time. I appreciate the efforts that companies and councils make to make the task easier. Talk to your kids, build a report with them folks, build trust, let them know you love them and even if you don’t like what they may be saying or doing you will always love them and be there to help without judgment or disappointment.
Some might be amazed how easily my two eldest will show me their texts, pics and what have you.
Talk to the children in your life about this stuff before it happens to them. Get to know their friends and care about the whole lot of them like they are your own. Be a supportive adult figure to any child involved in your life and open to their ideas and problems. Be a good neighbor and active citizen. Give the children in your life your time, wisdom and example. Teach them their own value and hold to keep that intact.
Perhaps if more of us did these things, so many Americans would not have to ask companies and politicians to help us violate the civil rights of our children because we are afraid that “someone” is going to hurt them. Perhaps then we will be able to trust their judgment, their friends and our neighborhoods more
There should be a log file parents can access online with all incomming and outgoing texts in it. Pictures as well.