How does the Samsung Intensity work?

My parents got me a cell phone for an early birthday present. It’s a Verizon Samsung Intensity. This is my first cell phone, so I’m just a little lost. My phone has texting, my parents’ cell phones don’t. The guy who sold my parents the phone told them they could “spy” on me by seeing how many minutes I use and stuff. Can they see how I call/text and who calls/texts me? Do they just see the number or the person’s name? How do they check minutes? They said I have unlimited texting/calling to Verizon users and then I think 500 minutes for people outside my network. They said that I have free weekends that starts Fridays at 9:00pm and lasts until Mondays at 6:00am. Does that mean I can call/text outside my network without it costing me minutes?

What if someone from a different network calls or texts me? Does that still take my minutes, or does it just take theirs? Or does it take from both of our minutes.

I have been texting 2 people who also have verizon. This hasn’t been costing me any minutes since we all 3 are on the same network, right?

I seen a commerical on TV about a Sprint plan. It featured unlimited texting/calling to any network. Would that have been better for us to go with?

Can we upgrade our plan so that I can have unlimited texting/calling ouside of our network? About how much do you suppose that sort of upgrade would cost? I’m asking that because my parents pay the cell phone bills, not me.

It’s also a picture phone. If I were to upload some pics online, would my parents know that I did? I’m not asking this because I’m planning to uploade nudes or something, I’d NEVER do that because that’s just wrong… I’m just asking so I know. And would it cost any money to upload pics from a cell phone to a social networking site? If so, how much?

Is there anything else I need to know? Sorry for all the questions and if I sound stupid, but as I said, this is my first cell phone. I want to make sure I don’t go over my minutes because my parents, especially my dad, would be really mad. My dad would probably make me get rid of my phone even if it only happened once.