Posted on 07/10/2006 1:47:07 PM PDT by Ben Mugged
Paige White was surprised when her parents figured out soon after she started driving last year that she'd gone 9 miles to a party, not 4 miles to the friend's house she'd told them she was visiting. It seemed to her almost as if her car was bugged.
It was.
Paige's parents had installed a device in their daughter's SUV that can tell them not only how far she's driven, but how fast and whether she's made any sudden stops or hard turns.
"I was kind of mad because I felt it was an invasion of my privacy," said the Los Gatos resident, now 17.
Parents, some of whom feel outmatched by their offspring in this tech-savvy world, are using a growing number of gadgets, software and specially equipped cell phones to track kids' driving, read their instant messages and pinpoint where they're hanging out.
~snip~But cyber-snooping is simply a new tool, experts say. It doesn't resolve the dilemma parents have grappled with for generations: How much free rein do you give children so they can learn the lessons they need to grow up and be independent?
~snip~
Proponents of the new technology say it can help protect kids -- whether from predators lurking online or their own bad driving. But while there may be gains, monitoring also can take a toll.
"The bottom line is, surveillance will cut down somewhat on potential risk behavior kids will engage in, but it is at a cost," Wolf said. "To the extent that you do surveillance, you are potentially interfering with your kids developing responsibility for their own lives."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Too true. My daughter has her own computer and is not allowed on mine, and I guard my logon password very carefully.
Lots of parents DO have plenty of serious conversations with their kids. But especially with all the rotten influences around them these days, it often doesn't sink in. I'd rather parents keep tabs like this, than find out the hard way that their kid was driving drunk, doing drugs, etc. Too often we hear the tragic stories of kids killed while doing something their parents were sure they'd never do.
"I was kind of mad because I felt it was an invasion of my privacy," said the Los Gatos resident, now 17.
She's really mad because she got caught lying. If her parents are legally responsible for her, they have a right to know what she's up to.
*HER* SUV? I think I see some of the problem right there.
If she doesn't like the arrangements, she can leave. As long as ANYONE is living in someone else's home, they should abide by the rules of the homeowner. I don't see that any guest has the right to dictate what the people hosting them have to put up with. And that includes kids.
I don't think so. Controlling a kid's whereabouts has a big effect on who they associate with, and that has a big effect on what kind of adults they turn into.
Not this kind of control. Stuff like this isn't going to do anything but make the kid go wild when they turn 18 and are finally out from under Mom's skirt.
Hear, hear!
If a girl's parents had been closely monitoring her whereabouts, it's unlikely she'd have any need to visit an abortion clinic.
Ah, but the question is, what did Paige's parent's do with the information? Did she have the SUV taken away for a bit? Was she repremanded in any way?
That's a specious statement. There are lots of parents who have good relationships with their normally 'good' kids and the kids will lie to them when they're trying to get away with something. Part of being a kid is pushing boundaries and kids lie to their parents about who they're with and what they've been doing.
The fact you are not considering is that sometimes it can be right for someone to be under surveillance, and in other cases surveillance is something that can be abused and turned into a tool to oppress people.
The kids in question aren't being oppressed and parents have more than one legitimate reasons for possibly considering this.
People nanny kids to death until they're 18 or 21, and then expect them to be adults after that. It's absurd. They are only delaying delinquency until their 20s (when you can't do anything about it).
It's nothing but a beat-down so the doctors and psychiatrists can pump their veins full of drug-induced "self-esteem".
Give them real independence to be free and proud - not freedom with a leash - or else they will never learn those qualities as adults.
Do you have any children?
Better be careful with. Depending on the circumstances that might be a felony.
The end justifies the means when you're a "responsible" parent. The end is protection and guidance; not blind trust.
In fact, liberals foster a sense of blind trust in kids, especially those of early voting age.
Allowing the kid to lie to her parents and get away with it for their teen years is not teaching her responsibility or a good life habit, either.
What it is teaching her is that her negative actions have consequences, and that if you keep lying long enough, you'll get caught. Seems a valuable lesson to me.
The kid is just pi$$ed off that she got caught in an 'unfair' way. I know when I got caught trying to put something over on my folks I was upset but I didn't have a leg to stand on because I was lying. They didn't seem to care how they found out, 'unfairly' or not.
Different kids require different tools.
It would be small comfort to me that my daughter was exercising her independence if I ended up weeping at her funeral over a tragedy I could have prevented with a little parental intervention.
Which is exactly why my lil misses will be driving their dates. We just talked (again) about this just yesterday. The roads out to our place are just not the place for a teen boy at noon, much less one trying to race to get her home before curfew. Sure, that leaves the hormone creature in the passenger seat with free hands, but I prefer the possible consequences.
Why does a 17-year old have her own SUV?
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