DENVER - Matt Warta calls it "inappropriate." He says his 13-year-old son received a text message advertising the Diamond Cabaret strip club.
The text message looks like it was sent to a long list of cell phone numbers and is inviting military personnel to stop by the strip club for free cover and free drinks.
"I just finished my lacrosse practice and I looked at my phone," Jack Warta, 13, said. "It asked me if I wanted to come and celebrate Osama bin Laden's death with free cover and free drafts. It was kind of confusing."
Warta showed the text to his dad, who says he was "shocked."
"You'd like to think you can protect your child from those kind of things," Matt Warta said. "As a parent, that's really frustrating."
Matt Warta says he called the Diamond Cabaret for answers but didn't get any. The strip club did agree to take his son's name off their list. He has not received any other text messages from the club.
The general manager would not talk to 9NEWS on camera. He told us to call and leave a message with the corporate office which was already closed Monday evening.
"There's enough stuff out there that pollutes their minds," Matt Warta said. "That's the last thing we want to do is use a personal device like a cell phone to send those messages to them."
"Why would you send a 13-year-old a text message asking them to come to a strip club and give them free beer and alcohol?" Jack asked. "It's just wrong."
I'll go in his place!!!
Diamond Cabaret probably contracted with a telemarketing service who ran the list of cellphone numbers in a specific area. The numbers are assumed to be held by adults because underage persons cannot contract for cellphone service. (Maybe they can buy phones with refill cards under age 18, but would these numbers be available to telemarketers?) A parent may contract for a cellphone and assign the number to a child's name, but there is usually no age block on calls to that number. We are all now exposed to junk cellphone marketing calls unless we act to block them.