Child Service Plan

Janell Burley Hofmann honored her 13-year-old son's "maturity and growth" at Christmas with his first iPhone, but it came with strings attached.

Eighteen strings, to be exact, in a written code of conduct that placed the mommy blogger at the center of the debate about how parents should handle technology in the hands of their teens, especially younger ones just entering the frenetic world of social networks and smartphones.

Thousands of people, including those bemoaning too much helicopter parenting, commented about the actions of the Cape Cod, Mass., mom of five. The interest crashed ...