by Taylor Fernandes ’14

It’s rare to see teens nowadays that do not stroll along with an iPhone, Android or other type of smart phone in their hands. The level of dependency of teens on their smart phones has raised privacy and safety concerns by several public interest groups.

Federal regulators are considering changing child privacy laws, such as requiring parents’ permission to collect information online, to apply to teens as well, but until then teens’ dependency on their phones may lead to exposing personal information.

Studies show that six in 10 teens own a smart phone, and this figure is rising. With the amount of time a teen spends on his or her phone, much information is given out, willingly or inadvertently.

Even Twitter has the option to post a location with every tweet, so not only do people know what teens are doing, they know where the teens are doing it as well. Many smart phone owners also are unaware that many applications have the ability to collect personal information from one’s phone.