The undercover parent (summary)

Parents are using spyware programs to monitor their children’s cyber actions. They download the program, install it in their children’s computers and begin to receive reports as periodically as they wish – weekly, daily, whatever- showing everything their kids do on it.

Although its scary name, some parents use spyware because there are so many dangers in the Internet: unknown pedophiles, cyber-bullying, scammers, innapropiate sites, etc. No one wants their children being seduced by a sick man or commited suicide for receiving bullyng e-mails. Also another reason for the use of spyware is that everything they type can be seen by the world –teachers, friends, neighbors, etc. The Internet is not a haven of privacy.

Despite those arguments, some people claim that is not appropiate to read your teenager’s thoughts, as you were reading their diary of the past. But posting thoughts on the Internet isn’t the same as hiding your diary under your bed.

People are always suspicious about anything that hints privacy invasion, but it’s not an absolute when parents are challenging all the dangers from the Internet –They just want to protect their sons and give them some guidance.