Texas Criminal Defense Group - November 2025

Help Your Child Manage Anxiety STRONGER IN THE STRUGGLE

Watching a child suffer anxiety is hard, and some children worry more than others. Some psychologists say smartphones, social media, and overprotective parenting have made it more difficult for an entire generation of youngsters today to manage their anxiety. Some 21% of kids ages 3–17 have been diagnosed with anxiety, public health data show. At its heart, anxiety is an inability to tolerate uncertainty and a lack of confidence in oneself to handle whatever happens. Gaining courage to face one’s fears and learning to endure unpleasant feelings without letting them control you are areas where children can greatly benefit from a parent’s support and guidance. If your child is prone to anxiety, it’s important to avoid the knee-jerk instinct many parents experience: to

offer comfort and try to make things easier. Instead, acknowledge their nervousness and reassure them that feeling a little scared can be normal. Don’t engage in magical thinking by comforting your child with promises that they’ll pass a test, find countless new friends, or perform perfectly in a game or concert. And steer them away from comparing themselves with others, a habit that undermines their confidence. Instead, reassure them that they can manage the outcome, regardless of what happens, and that all anyone expects is their best effort. If your child is worried about tryouts for a competitive team, it may help to talk through what might happen if their anxiety about failing comes true.

may feel doomed to fail a test, but those feelings aren’t facts, and no one can foresee the future. Reassure them that if they practice managing their fears, staying calm and collected will become easier. And model healthy responses to your own anxieties, describing your coping mechanisms and self-care strategies. The responses children learn as youngsters are likely to stick with

Empower your child to embrace two seemingly conflicting realities — they them into adulthood. Taking a thoughtful approach to teaching emotion regulation tools will go a long way toward instilling resilience, flexible thinking, and other hallmarks of good mental health. Law Enforcement Wants to Search Your Phone

law enforcement must obtain a warrant to search the contents of a cellphone seized during an arrest. Law enforcement must have a search warrant to gain access to your cellphone. This essentially means they must prove probable cause for them to seize and search it. However, this is not the only Do You Have to Let Them?

Few things in life are more personal and valuable to us than our cellphones. We use them to communicate with friends and family, watch our favorite shows, and keep up with current events. Most of us wouldn’t feel comfortable passing our phones to someone we know, let alone a stranger, due to privacy concerns. But what should you do if law enforcement requests your phone so they can look through it? Do you have to comply? Thankfully, the law is on your side.

way law enforcement can access your personal device. If they ask and you give permission, they no longer need a warrant to search through your phone. If law enforcement believes there is an immediate threat to public safety or risk of destruction of evidence, they may claim the emergency overrides their lack of a warrant. This does not happen often; however, when it does, it’s usually challenged in court successfully. While we’d like to think every law enforcement officer follows the rules, some overstep and decide to search through your phone without a warrant or consent. If this happens, don’t overstress; that evidence will likely be deemed inadmissible in court. If you think law enforcement violated your rights or privacy during a recent interaction, call an experienced defense attorney immediately.

The Fourth Amendment protects Americans against unreasonable

searches and seizures by government officials. Although our Founding Fathers ratified this amendment over 200 years ago, long before cellphones, it still applies to our high-tech personal devices. The Supreme Court upheld this ideology in the Riley v. California case in 2014, in which the court ruled that

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