monitoring

Parental Monitoring in the Digital Age

The internet has brought many things with it: social networking sites, email, and YouTube, just to name a few. There are so many things to do online that it is hard to keep track of what children are doing online, which is a concerning factor for parents of young children. The internet is filled with many positive websites that are educational, entertaining, and child appropriate. But there are many things a child can run into online that may expose him/her to violence, sexual content, cyberbullying and cyber stalking. In fact, according to the Youth Internet Safety Survey “19% of youth ages 10 to 17 received unwanted sexual solicitations in the [year 2000], and 25% were exposed to unwanted sexual material online (Finkelhor, Mitchell, & Wolak, 2000). This was in the year 2000 when the internet was not as widespread as it is today. Just imagine what is happening today in 2014, where the internet can be accessed from so many new technologies, such as smart phones, tablets and iPods. Given the dangers they may face, parents should monitor their children’s online activity.

It is important to note that the definition of a “child” is quite complicated given the fact that there are different meanings as to what a child really is.The definition of a parents should also be clear when addressing this topic as well. The biological definition of a parent is the one who “conceived or sired a child” (Webster). Adoptive parents, the adults who adopt foster children also fall under the category of “parent”. For purposes of this research paper I will refer to a parent as any adult that has the responsibility of raising a child. This responsibility includes providing food, clothing, shelter, and maintaining...

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...eir children.

One particular parent Lynn Clark a parent who once used monitoring technologies believes that this kind of monitoring leads to a dishonest relationship with children. By spying on everything they do online. She also believes children should have their space to grow and do figure things out on their own. She believes that since children are curious about the world parents shouldn’t ruin that for them. Clark makes good points about how children should be given some leg room to grow and shouldn’t be under constant surveillance as though they are some kind of criminal but it should be noted that children are at a point of their lives where they don’t really know how to protect themselves from the online influences and dangers that occur daily and it’s a parents job to ensure their child’s both safety both inside and outside of their home.

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