Quote:
Originally Posted by patteeu
I'm not intending it as a strictly legal argument to be honest. I'm just distinguishing between the 36 year old daughter who has moved out and is on her own (where spying would be just as wrong as spying on your next door neighbor) versus the 12 year old who you don't owe any kind of privacy on a computer or a phone or otherwise if you see fit as a parent.
Sure it makes sense to try to parent using good communication, positive reinforcement, and happy talk first, but that won't always work. And when it doesn't, you can't just give up and let them go off the rails.
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Agree. Communicating is great and can prevent a lot of problems, but it's not the end-all. Even good kids can stray out of bounds. Parents should keep a close watch, and there is nothing at all wrong with monitoring online activity.
I have 2 grade school-age boys who are on the internet daily. I am generally around and when they are, and they have a couple of PBS/educational game sites they access. But one day I came down to find a web site pulled up with a pentagram and a full-blown witchcraft site. It was a site that was seriously espousing it as some kind of legit religion. Aside from looking really creepy, there didn't appear to be much on the page that was too over-the-top, but still.
Called down my eight year-old and asked him about it. His uncle had shown him a couple of magic tricks that he believed were real, so he decided to look online to figure out how to do magic and that's the site he landed on. This was partially my fault for not communicating since he had asked me if I knew how to do the trick and I maintained the story that it was all just magic that his uncle could do, which led to him seeking answers on his own. Ended up being a lesson for me that I need to watch more closely.