Whatever Happened To Trust?
from the trust-schmust dept
A fun article in the Washington Post about parents who spy on their kids using a program called eBlaster, that records every keystroke, and can be installed in a “stealth-mode” so that (they claim) the kid will never know. Of course, I realize that most people will assume that the kid is more tech savvy than the adult, so the chances of them figuring this out may be high. However, what bothers me most about this is the idea that parents are just going to install a piece of software and spy on their kids, rather than teaching them to do what’s right, and teaching them to know what’s right from wrong. At the same time, since most parents who use the software don’t even tell their kids that they’re spying on them, it’s teaching kids (who eventually find out) that their own parents don’t trust them. I don’t think that’s necessarily good parenting – but seeing as I’m not a parent, I would guess that many parents might disagree.
Comments on “Whatever Happened To Trust?”
The point
The point about being a kid is that you do things that your parents don’t know about, or at least you think they don’t know about. If the worst thing they is snigger at a prono site or something then big deal (no, most kids are not stupid enough to be corrupted by them). However if they know they are being watched then they will probably go out and try stuff that is less watchable and actually dangerous. Rebelliousness is right but it too needs limits.