If I bought the phone and pay the bill I'll take that phone away anytime I please.

Yes but reading and deleting personal texts is what I am getting at.. That's way over the line of appropriate.

If they live under my house, eat my food, sleep in my room, use my phone, I see no problem with it. Now would I like it if my personal texts and shit were read? No, but that's how the cookie crumbls.

I hope you aren't a parent. Thanks for your input I guess..

That's how the world is gonna be. Yes, taking away the phone is a right when you have paid for it, that's a privilege you have paid for, and one they have earned. Deleting/reading texts, while it seems a bit much, was an act done whilst on those privileges.

Are either of you parents?

I'm a parent and I totally agree with Thethirdi and Tarotnathers13th. While the deleting texts is a little odd, especially if the kid has seen them, the phone belongs to me, if you've proven you aren't deserving of the privilege I will take it away. Its also highly dependent on the age of the child and the content of the messages.

Okay so what if your kid did absolutely nothing wrong, followed all of your rules no matter how arbitrary, the parent just irrationally disliked the person sending the messages. The child is not a child. 17 years old. And the content of messages is trying to figure out a relationship between them that has existed for months.

Ok, that's another story. That is more of a micromanagement and controlling bordering on manipulation issue. 17 is still a kid honestly, but that's no excuse, and at that age you have to start letting them make their own life choices, even if you don't agree, as long as it's not endangering anyone

Exactly! Thank you. You can probably tell this is a real situation, I just wanted to make sure I was right to think he shouldn't have. The texts were me telling her how sorry I was for recent events and that I loved her more than she knew and things like that. He is trying to manipulate her and control her into never talking to me again, so he took the phone and deletes texts from me...

Yeah, thats actually kind of creepy.

He's a very creepy dude. His main hobby is controlling every part of his family member's lives. I mean every part. The girl I'm talking about asked her mom if she could go somewhere with me for ice cream, she said yes, then her dad said no and that "your mom doesn't have any say about this, I make the decisions"... He's also sexist as fuck. I hate him.

Yeah, that crosses the line. Fuck him.

Bullshit mom doesn't have a say. Also, he does realize in a year she's 18 and legally she can leave and never look back.

Exactly. He's pushing his family away. Her mom almost asked for a divorce because of all that. And he's making his daughter want to leave his house and never return in about 4 months.