In Totally Wired, I shared a couple of teens' stories about texting away with friends or boyfriends only to have mom and dad freak out when they saw the bill. Hint: If your teen loves to text, you need a plan that offers unlimited text messaging (or a high enough limit that would be hard for them to go over). I have blogged about cell phone safety and ethics before, but USA Today raised an important issue in this article about teens unwittingly downloading premium services. Since teens love to personalize their phones, ringtones, wallpaper, ringbacks and other premium services are all attractive ways to make their phone their own. The problem is they cost money, and teens sometimes don't realize what they're agreeing to when they download them. From the article:

"Fodeman is one of a growing number of parents upset by charges for premium text-messaging services on bills for kids' cellphones. Commercials for the services -- offering everything from ring tones to horoscopes -- are ubiquitous on cable channels popular with kids, such as MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central.

While Fodeman's daughter, now 14, didn't do anything to initiate the subscription, the most common complaints involve situations where kids are duped into doing something that activates a subscription without knowing they've signed up for a monthly bill. And parents often have trouble sorting out the charges on generally complicated cellphone bills."

Parents have filed class action lawsuits against companies like Jamster for advertising premium services to teens who they say don't have the authority to purchase them. The industry says they're taking action with the following guidelines:

- The premium services will require a "double opt-in," meaning they'll send a text message to new subscribers asking them to confirm their intent.

- Specific words are set up that the user can text back to the company to cancel service, including "stop," "cancel," "unsubscribe," "end" and "quit."

- In TV ads offering a free ring tone, a company must say whether downloading it signs you up for a pay service and how much it costs.

Still, parents need to take action, too, by talking to their teens about these services and making sure they talk to you before clicking anything.