Rethinking IM Privacy For Kids

mackles writes, "Now that the world has read the despicable instant messages from Rep. Foley, should parents take a second look at monitoring their kids' IMs? After all, it was IM logging that exposed the scandal; would we have found out otherwise? Cost is not an issue, there are free monitoring tools. Should parents tell their kids before they monitor? Parents and their tech-savvy kids are at odds on the topic. From the article: 'As many as 94 percent of parents polled this summer by the research firm Harris Interactive said they've turned to Web content filters, monitoring software, or advice from an adult friend to keep electronic tabs on their children.' The article quotes one 18-year-old as saying, 'A lot of kids are smarter than adults think.'"

Comments

Re:think outside the box

[dmitrygr]

...so I really don't see why they should have complete access to everything...

This kind of thinking brought us slavery (people said this about blacks), Guantanamo (people said this about terrorists), and religious war (people said this about all other religions).

On another note, surely you do not expect this setup to be secure. Why not implant a gps tracker in your kids, and a device to electrify them when they try to leave the house, spend 4 hours interrogating every one of their new friends, and continue in this fashion. This will get you a few things accomplished:

*They will get around all this crap
*They will genuinely hate you
*They will not listen to you (and thus learn nothing actually useful about life)
*They will be as dumb as you about raising kids

Re:Revolutionary Idea

[ResidntGeek]

No. I'll hazaard a guess that you're older than me (I'm 18) and therefore farther from childhood. I can assure you that talking to a child about why something is wrong will do very little except arouse their curiosity. If they know you're checking logs and history to make sure they're toeing the line, they'll either push back until you cave (rare, requires both headstrong child and weak parent) or give in and grow up accepting surveillance as a part of life (common). You can watch their computer habits with your eyes if you want to, that's normal and expected. But when you use the computer to make your surveillance constant, flawless, and inescapable, you're doing much more harm than good.

Re:Anything on the router level?

[uncoveror]

Kids aren't stupid? They are so. They are stupid enough to chat with, and give personal information to people who turn out to be pedophiles and killers. Their knowledge of how to sneak around their parents is not wisdom. It is foolishness that many teens do not survive. Giving kids privacy on the internet can be like giving them a firearm as a toy.