Do you spy on your kids?For those of us still in the diapers and preschool stage, that question isn't up for much debate--who doesn't quietly peek into their kids' rooms to watch them play or sleep or fight with their siblings? But for those of us deep in the throes of teenage parenting, it can literally be a question of life and death.
Or can it?
Companies such as My Mobile Watchdog and Mobile Spy are marketing to parents of teens with visions of sexual predators dancing in their heads. Are your kids texting known sex offenders? Are they planning on meeting up with a stranger they met on MySpace? Are they "sexting" their friends? By installing the companies' software on your teen's cell phone, you'll be able to see who's texting your child. You can set up a list of approved texters, and any time your child receives an "unathorized" text, you'll get a real-time text message alert. The service costs about $10 per month.
Parents aren't the only ones using the services; Mike Harris, a member of the Child Sex Internet Investigations Unit in Jefferson County, Colorado, installed it on his own cell phone, then posed as an underage child on social networking sites. Since then, Harris arrested 83 alleged sexual predators, more than half with the help of the monitoring service.
But does that mean we should be infringing on our childrens' privacy? Some child privacy advocates don't think so. But most parents disagree.
"I wasn't going to get my 15-year-old a cell phone and not know how she was using it," says James Green of Sulphur, Louisiana. "I think it's a caring father that wants to know what's going on in her life."
What do you think? Is this sneaky wiretapping or responsible parenting?
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