Expert: DebiN - 9/10/2009

Question
I am wondering if there is anyway to find out the content that is being passed along between my teenage daughter and her boyfriend. Her text usage has gone from somewhat minimal to 50-100 a day. My provider (tmobile) says that there is no possible way that they could store all of the texts that people send throughout the nation on a daily basis. But I've read different threads from people giving complete opposite answers. Please help! Thanks.

Answer
What T-Mobile is telling you is completely correct. I have tried to explain this to many people over the years and for whatever reason, people seem to think that the carriers keep the actual content of text messages either indefinitely or for several years. That is 100% not true. The FCC does not require the carriers to retain the content of text messages. They are only required to keep records of transactions, i.e., calls and texts and data usage. The record just shows the date/time of the transaction and the numbers involved. So you should see the number that she is texting to and who is texting her (in many cases), but you will not be able to see the content of those texts. Even with a court subpoena, that information is NOT available. On occasion, if a subpoena were to request the last couple of days of records, a carrier may still have that information available, but if the time period was a couple of months ago or longer, that information just isn't around. The carriers' servers are only so big and they have no reason to retain this information when it's not legally required. Text messages have become huge in the past couple of years and I think that people misinterpret their intent - they were designed for short messages to people - they were never intended to be legal documents or critical information anything other than brief chat. Even email wasn't originally designed for that, but look how much email has changed over the years. It is now considered a legal record in many cases. Could that happen with texts someday? It's always possible, but before that can happen, laws would have to change and the FCC would have to mandate the carriers to retain the content of messages for a period of time, etc.

Long answer to a short question, but what T-Mobile told you is accurate. I would strongly recommend that you either limit her texts with T-Mobile - they should be able to block her text message usage when it reaches a certain number or get an unlimited text plan for her (if you don't have one already) and make her pay for it, perhaps. Unlimited text with T-Mobile is only $15 a month.

I hope this helps. It's very hard having a teenager, I know that one, for sure! Thanks. DebiN