Protecting our children when is it to much? (teenagers, parents, smart)

[Miborn]

Here are some internet links that all parents should take a look at;

IMSafer
Want to monitor her instant messages?
IMSafer lets you know when your children may be in dangerous situations online, and shows you how they represent themselves in their online profiles.


We already have a full range of cell phones equipped with GPS. Indeed, the most common cell phone greeting is not "how are you?" but "where are you?" Parents are being sold the idea that they can trust but Wherify -- the name of one among the many manufacturers offering services that beam your kids' whereabouts to your cell phone.


https://www.mynutrikids.com/login.asp
Know what your kids are eating at lunchtime.

Gradebook Software - GradeSpeed.NETâ„¢
Want an automatic alert if he got a B on the pop quiz?

GPS Tracking, GPS Vehicle Tracking products for monitoring of teen drivers.
And want to know if your 17-year-old is speeding? Alltrack not only tells you but lets you remotely flash the lights and honk the horn till she slows down.

There is also a "safety checks" service courtesy of Sprint to let you know if your kids showed up at soccer practice.


And a "geofencing" service from Verizon that alerts parents if a child leaves the area circumscribed by her parents.

Next thing you know, there will be a chip implanted under your child's skin. No wait! Somebody's already invented that.


Now we have a disharmonic convergence of anxieties, the dual fear that kids are endangered and/or dangerous, out of (our) control.
There's the sense that we are raising children in a more treacherous culture. We teach preschoolers about stranger-danger, and only let them take candy from our friends if it's sealed.

But even if kids aren't wandering in the neighborhood, they are wandering in the Internet with all of its unknown cul-de-sacs.
What teenagers claim as MySpace, parents often see as an unmonitored public zone that leads predators to their doorstep.

At the same time, parents are expected to know and control everything their kids watch, eat, do -- where they are, who they are texting, what channels and Web sites they are viewing. So we have entered a technological arms race where even MySpace -- whose space? -- offers parents a way to track the changes posted by children.

"The culture of fear," according to Danah Boyd, a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, "says that if you are not monitoring, you are a bad parent. Apparently, we're supposed to be stalking our kids." Having privatized child raising, we seem to be turning parents into private eyes.

AlterNet: Rights and Liberties: Spying Parents: When Worrying Becomes Stalking

[treeg26]

Trusting your child and trusting the world around them are two different things. Sometimes kids do things that they really don't realize puts them in danger. Some monitoring is good parenting.

[I love the Bears]

I tell my children - it is my job to decide what is right for you - we may discuss - but your father and I decide. That's just how it's gonna be. This approach may not work for all kids - but it does with mine. Thank God!

[treeg26]

This is one reason why kids have parents - to protect them. I must admit I am very over-protective. My kids don't need cell phones, because they are with me or another parent until they are old enough to be off on their own, and until I can TRUST them to be off on their own. They lie to me once, the freedom is gone for a long time!! I don't know if I'd go as far as putting a tracking device in their phone. You do have to let go a little bit at some point, right?

[jessiegirl_98]

You need some monitoring, but kids need to be able to have some freedom so that when they get it later in life (e.g., go to college, etc), they know how to make their own smart decisions and set their own limits.