Social-Networking Teens Turn to Craigsnumber

Chris Null wrote about Craigsnumber as one effective way to set up a temporary phone number for an hour, day, or week. As its name implies, it's designed for Craigslist customers to connect quickly via phone, though it's not affiliated with Craigslist. But Jenny writes that her 14-year-old son tells her Craigsnumber also is a "perfectly OK means to talk with his MySpace buddies and to-be-buddies."

She asks: "Assuming our kids are going to be using Craigsnumber, could you give moms your perspective on Craigsnumber?"

Well, at least kids are using good judgment by not giving out their phone numbers or hopefully, other identifying personal information, when reaching out beyond their MySpace pages. And as Robin writes in this post, adding voice and visual communication to anonymous web writings may turn out to be a good way to weed out untrustworthy types more quickly than if only trading words.

But I've got a 13-year-old, and truth be told, I don't want her setting up phone calls with people she hasn't met in person. I'm not sure if I'd feel the same with an older teenager, but right now, even using a temporary phone number to contact someone she doesn't know outside the Internet would worry me greatly.

That's one mom's take. I'd love to hear from other parents about this, and from kids. Do you think using Craigsnumber or another temporary phone number service is a good way to connect with friends made on social-networking sites? Sound off.