Cellphone texting law — Mississippi Permit Test
Cellphone texting law on the Mississippi permit test — 5 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
Do not use cell phones for calls or texting while driving; if you must make a call, a hands-free device is recommended.
Holding a phone takes a hand off the wheel and your mind off the road at the same moment.
If you must make a phone call while driving. A hands-free device is recommended.
Writing, sending or reading text messages while driving is not allowed.
Reading a text for a few seconds at highway speed means driving blind for the length of a football field.
Writing, sending or reading text messages is not allowed.
Reading or posting to a social networking site using a hand-held mobile telephone while driving is not allowed.
Scrolling a feed pulls your eyes down to the screen far longer than a glance.
Reading or posting to a social networking site using a hand-held mobile telephone is not allowed.
A hand-held mobile telephone means a device used with at least one hand to call or text; the term does not include a voice-operated or hands-free device.
The law aims at hands on the phone, so a device you run by voice is treated differently.
The term "hand-held mobile telephone" shall not include a voice-operated or hands-free device.
Under the texting law, text messages do not include an emergency, traffic or weather alert, or a message about operating or navigating the vehicle.
A storm warning or a road closure alert helps you drive safely, so the law does not count it as a banned text.
Text messages- include a text-based message, instant message, electronic message, and email, but shall not include an emergency, traffic, or weather alert or a message related to the operation or navigation of the motor vehicle.
On the test
If you must make a phone call while driving, what does the manual recommend?
A hands-free device for the call. Holding a phone takes a hand off the wheel and your mind off the road at the same moment. Mississippi Driver's License Manual, p.23: “If you must make a phone call while driving. A hands-free device is recommended.”
How this works
Most practice tests hand you a bank of questions and leave the manual somewhere else. This one puts them together.
You read one law and the reason behind it, then answer a question on that law while it is still fresh. Get it right and you move on; get it wrong and you have found the gap while it is cheap to fix, not on the morning of the exam.
Learning one rule at a time, and proving it immediately, is what turns a manual you skimmed into something you actually know — and it makes studying feel like getting somewhere rather than like waiting to find out.
What it costs
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Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against Mississippi Driver's License Manual, published by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-10-04.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/MS.pdf (Mississippi Driver's License Manual, Revised December 2024, Mississippi Department of Public Safety, Driver Service Bureau, retrieved 2026-10-04; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/MS.pages.txt (the plain pdftotext fixture every citation here was cut from and verified against; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/MS-exam.html (31 Miss. Code. R. 1-2.3 as reproduced by the Legal Information Institute, retrieved 2026-10-04; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json under examSource)
- https://www.driverservicebureau.dps.ms.gov/Drivers/Learners_Permit (read 2026-10-04; links the manual, states no count or mark)
- https://www.sos.ms.gov/adminsearch/ACCode/00000383c.pdf (Title 31 Part 1, Driver Services Administrative Code; Rule 2.3 item 9: "A grade of 80% will be required on any and all tests issued for a Temporary Permit.")
- https://www.sos.ms.gov/adminsearch/ACProposed/00013644b.pdf (the 2006 filing whose "30 question" sentence the 2013 and 2014 re-filings struck; not used)