What does it do?
(CLICK HERE if you missed the beginning of this article)
For $10 per month, My Mobile Watchdog and programs like it document SMS messages and other data sent via smart phones that can be used in court in cases of predation. Hardly personal loan or credit card material, right? It can also prompt your children to lose trust in you and faith in themselves. Why? Let’s put it this way: How many of you parents out there will abstain from reading your kids’ messages? Just this side of none. If you’re shaking your head, you’re kidding yourself.
But let’s wipe the ire from our slickers for a moment and see how this might be good. Once a child’s phone is equipped with the software, a list of safe contacts is created. Only those are allowed to message the minor’s phone. All activity is stored in an online file parents can view to their lurid pleasure later. Oops, sorry… I’ll try to hold my opinions in check.
Nope, can’t do it
Give your children your time and your love from the very beginning. Nothing is more important. Not a career, not religion, not beer-soaked entertainment – nothing. Teach them. If they know you love and trust them, they will be well on their way to becoming stable, loving people who make appropriate decisions for themselves. I’m not saying this is easy. I’m saying you must fight the good fight and be emotionally available to your kids.
If you want to understand why this is important, here is a fantastic book to consider. Throw in some Dr. Sears (minus the ideas that are clearly influenced by dogma) and you may just learn something.
Now back to our program
Keep in mind that if you have an iPhone, My Mobile Watchdog may or may not keep track of everything that a child does on social networks like MySpace and Facebook. And if you have a tech-savvy child, there may be ways around the “security.”
Also consider that this service could be considered digital eavesdropping. Then think about whether you share the opinions of one North Carolina mother and business owner who was quoted in Pontz’s article. Interestingly, she asked that her name not be disclosed…
I monitor my employees at the workplace. And this is my son. So to me it’s not like I’m wiretapping him. Besides, privacy in my house is earned.
Earned, huh? Hope your son likes your regime, madame. For me, privacy is a human right. Engender trust and teach your children out of love. The “guilty until proven innocent” road America has been headed down will lead it straight off a cliff.
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LOL. I like that; “Privacy in my house is earned.” That’s my kind of soldier.
Sexting, sex texting, whatever you want to call it can be extremely damaging. Which part of it don’t people understand? Children these days are given all these new hi-tech devices without the proper handbook or guidance on how to protect themselves from the dark side of this trend.
It doesn’t matter the age? what about kids who have parents with restraining orders against them where proof is needed? what about kids who have been caught sexting by their boyfriends little brother and nearly went to jail? what about the kid who went to rehab and was dealing and whose drug contacts are trying to reach them… you want to let them out of your sight, but… Since watchdog shows up as an announcement on the kids phone every day… it isn’t secret computer spyware… kid definitely knows it is there… maybe the kid will be able to set limits… maybe it is not a yes or no but depends on the age, maturity, and situation of the child….