Is It Ok for Parents to Monitor Their Kids Online? (choice blog)

Parents, have you ever felt like you were unable to trust your children with what they do online?  Kids, have you ever felt like your parents were too overprotective and they just don’t trust you enough with technology and social networks? Recently, I have read a debate article called “Is It Ok for Parents to Monitor Their Kids Online?” (“Yes” by Betsy Landers, and “No” by Jeffrey Nadel) about whether or not parents should be able to monitor everything that their children do or say online.

        In the article, Landers gives her opinion on why parents should be able to monitor what their children do or say online. Landers says, “This is not an invasion of privacy; it’s a 21^st-century parental responsibility” meaning that she believes that parents should be able to access not only all of their children’s online statuses, but also their conversations. I don’t think that this is right. Her opposition was almost completely opinionated, she rarely used facts to back up what she was saying. Also, she may just be making a brief point, which is that children should not be trusted on social networks.

      Also in the article, Nadel gives his opinion why parents should not monitor/ spy on their children’s online ventures. Nadel says, “Spying on young people denies them respect and dignity to which people are entitled.” Which means that children are the same as adults. Although parents tend to be worried about what their children may encounter online they have to trust that they’ve raised their child well enough to know what’s right and what’s wrong.

       I think that Nadel is correct. As children, we deserve to be treated just the same as any other human beings. There are many ways that a parent could ask their child about what is going on in their lives whether school, home or technology wise. Snooping in a child’s private social network will just break the bond that they’ve built, or could have. I also think that parents in this generation could never be too certain about not listening to their children when they are telling them about what goes on in their lives because if you have raised your child the right way, I’m pretty sure they’ll tell you when something goes wrong.