The girl is in trouble, but she's talking on the computer to her friends on her computer in the bedroom. Talking, not typing (chatting).

Her mother opens the door to the room, she mutes the computer, and her mother tells her she's grounded from the phone for a week. She says "aw mom", then her mother leaves.

She unmutes the computer and just laughs with her friends.

Back in 1997, a friend of mine at work's daughter was an AOL addict, so were all of her friends. They would get onto AOL all at the same time every night, and chat (type), sharing gossip, homework answers, etc. for 2-3 hours every night. Sixty! kids at a time. All the popular girls had an account.

So Bill, I'm actually thinking there's something wrong with your daughter. She's low tech if she's using the phone...

On the other hand, these girls would not only tie up AOL with one phone line, they would tie up the other with a personal call they didn't want to make on AOL.

So maybe you're lucky Bill, that she just wants to take over the phone and not the phone AND the computer.

Glen Austin