Reflections

http://mkgold.net/sp2007/com110/laumar/2007/03/03/is-big-brother-watching/

 Interesting as it can get. With all the controversy going on with children accessing the internet unmonitored and parents worried about their children’s safety regarding their online activity, should Snoopstick be a solution for parents to “spy” on their kids?

The pros of this would be that parents would be at ease that their child is being monitored at their home computer. They would be able to take preventive measures if their child is up to some trouble. Parents would also be able to limit their child’s accces to adult websites and other questionable websites. However, is it ethical to monitor  your child’s every IM conversation and email? Aren’t children allowed at least some amount of privacy?

Laura posted an excellent, new techonology, which brings about questions of morality and ethics. Where exactly should parents draw the line to monitor their children’s online activity? How should they make sure their children are not putting themselves into harmful situations with strangers without invading their privacy?

Another point to note is the factor of trust. Once children find out their parents are monitoring their activity wouldn’t they lose trust in their parents? Perhaps, if they really wanted to still visit certain sites and have certain conversations , they may still do so on a friend’s computer or perhaps a computer at their school. So, it may not be possible to monitor children at all times and a SnoopStick may even cause them to rebel once they find out their every activity is being monitored. If parents decide to monitor the behavior without telling the child, the child would find out sooner or later when the parent tries to intervene with  the child’s online activity or questions him/her about a certain activity.

Another interesting point from Laura’s post is that the SnoopStick can prevent children from accessing social networking sites such as myspace. I wonder how many skeptical parents would be interested in getting one to monitor their children’s online activities.