Argument Essay: The Undercover Parent By Harlan Coben

450 Words1 Page

The Undercover Parent- Argument Essay
Parents using spyware on their kids. This is the subject of Harlan Coben’s article
“The Undercover Parent”(2008) tries to convince parents that invading their child's privacy is the right thing to do as a parent. This could be no further from the truth. He claims to have done considerable amount of research, yet his paragraphs are full of half-truths.
An example of this is his faulty understanding of what is capable with the modern smartphone. He states “ But text messages and cell phones don't offer the anonymity and dangers of the internet. They are usually one-on-one with someone you know.” (12) Cell phones have an internet portal, making them have even more danger since they are hard to monitor because to do so you need either access to the SIM card or bypass Apple security, which is impossible. …show more content…

“ But posting thoughts on the internet isn't the same thing as hiding it under your mattress” (10). First off, using the internet and posting are two different things; the former not necessarily meaning the latter. Secondly a lot of people use a computer word document program as a diary (which is not online) and spyware would still see it, and now you are spying on your child's diary.

From my own experience, the internet is fine as long as you’re smart about it. When preparing for my interview for a scholarship, I went to a message board called “College Confidential”. There on the board, were people who were applying, and some who had already been interviewed, and were telling about the types of questions that they were asked. All of it was anonymous, no personal info was given out and I was out ahead.

Civil liberties and rights are important in this county, specifically in this case to the right of privacy. A very important case about this is going through the courts right now, the case

Open Document