EL PASO, Texas -- A recent increase in young cell phone users has the Texas Attorney General urging parents to protect their children from savvy predators.

Cell phones can be very convenient for parents to keep in touch with their kids during after school activities. But because of this increase in use, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott believes more needs to be done to protect children who use cell phones.

Jennette Eichansehr's two daughters, ages 8 and 11 now have cell phones. It's important for Eichansehr to get a hold of her daughters during their extra curricular activities.

"They're both very responsible so, they just use them to call me and let me know what's going on, if they're staying after school and whatever they need, said Eichansehr.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott Tuesday encouraged parents to utilize tools that can help protect young mobile telephone users from harmful content and child predators. Abbott says by implementing parental controls and learning more about the potential dangers facing cell phone users, well-informed parents can help keep their children safe. Eichansehr's kids' phones don't have Internet access but they receive texts, sometimes unwanted texts.

"The first one she got was where's the party, I wasn't too sure, what that one was from. All I did was answer the text and say this is a 9-year-old's phone, please don't text her again or I'll have to report you to the authorities," said Eichansehr.

Because of these kinds of predators, Abbott recently urged the Legislature to update Texas' sex offender registration laws. If enacted, the Attorney General's proposal would require sex offenders to register their email addresses, mobile telephone numbers, social networking aliases and other electronic identification information.

"There's predators as they walk out the door. On their way to school, on the Internet, whatever. It's up to the parents to be vigilant and watch what their kids are doing who they're texting, when they're texting," said Eichansehr.