It’s hard to get worked up about a new cell phone monitoring system infringing on teenagers’ right to privacy.

Since when do teenagers have a “right” to keep secret from their parents such things as who they are talking to on the phone or where they are on a Saturday night? Not that teens haven’t been pretty successful in hiding such information from their parents for generations, but it’s hardly a constitutional issue.

This question arises with the introduction of a new AT&T Web site that allows parents to place limits on their children’s cell phones. For $5 a month, parents can limit when and who their teens call and how many text messages they can send.

Simply placing time limits on a phone to control costs is one approach, but the possibilities extend far beyond that. For instance, phones can be switched off automatically when a teen is going to be in class or when he or she is supposed to be sleeping or doing homework. If parents don’t want their child to send or receive calls from a certain person, they can have that number blocked. The next innovation on the drawing board is embedding a GPS tracking system in cell phones so parents can keep track of the physical location of their children – or at least their phones.

The explosion of cell-phone ownership and usage calls for some new rules. A generation or two ago, it was relatively easy to monitor a child’s phone usage. With phones hard-wired to the wall, parents could make it a point to beat their child to the phone or at least keep track of how long they were on the line. With cell phones, there was little parents could do other than take the phones away, which reduced their ability to keep in touch with their child, which was why they probably got their child a phone in the first place.

As one AT&T representative said, the monitoring system puts parents back in the driver’s seat. “There’s no more negotiation or arguments,” he said. “The parents win.”

It’s about time.

The new controls allow considerable flexibility. Teens can override the controls and call 911 at any time. The phones can easily be programmed to allow calls to and from parents even at times when other calling or messaging is restricted.

Given the shocking phone bills some parents have seen – not to mention the arguments over time spent on the phone – it seems that many parents would think the monitoring service was a bargain. In fact, they probably are looking forward to the GPS system that allows them to keep track of their children’s location. Could they program a car so that after a certain time of night, the only direction it would drive is toward home?