{"id":857,"date":"2017-11-18T06:04:48","date_gmt":"2017-11-18T11:04:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/?p=857"},"modified":"2025-07-25T11:29:59","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T15:29:59","slug":"when-big-brother-lives-at-home-new-digital-technologies-make-it-easier-for-parents-to-spy-on-their-kidsand-everyone-else-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/2017\/when-big-brother-lives-at-home-new-digital-technologies-make-it-easier-for-parents-to-spy-on-their-kidsand-everyone-else-too\/","title":{"rendered":"When Big Brother Lives at Home: New Digital Technologies Make it Easier For Parents to Spy on their Kids\u2026and everyone else, too."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n When Big Brother Lives at Home: New Digital Technologies Make it Easier For Parents to Spy on their Kids\u2026and everyone else, too.\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n
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Have you ever wondered how fast your teen is driving when not under your watchful eye? Or wish you could block them from online dating and chat sites? Maybe turn their phone off – even lock it down – after a pre-set time limit? Or even track their GPS location? Well, the good news is there\u2019s an app for that<\/a>. Yes, for all of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Although many of us might be uncomfortable with the idea of our government or private corporations\u2019 spying on us<\/em>, apparently more and more parents are secretly watching their kids, giving new meaning to the term \u2018helicopter parenting.\u2019 With all of the new surveillance tools now available to the general public, parents no longer have to physically hover nearby to keep a close eye on their kids; it can all be done remotely and under cover as these new tools make it easy to hide the fact that you\u2019re keeping a close eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But before a parent decides to invest in some of the latest digital technologies to secretly stalk and micromanage their kids\u2019 lives, they might want to have a closer look at the evidence when it comes to what difference it may or may not make in their children\u2019s behavior. A study<\/a> that examined the assumption that the more tracking and surveillance performed by parents, the less likely their children were to become involved in \u2018delinquent\u2019 behavior, revealed that those parents who know more about what their kids are up to learned about these activities directly from their kids, and not from secretly observing them. So in other words, if those kids are doing okay, it\u2019s not because their parents know what they\u2019re up to, as much as the fact that their kids are actually telling them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As the authors of the study<\/a>, Kerr and Stattin, explained, \u201cchildren\u2019s spontaneous disclosure of information explained more of these relations than parents\u2019 tracking and surveillance efforts did\u201d and concluded that the findings of the study \u201csuggest that parents\u2019 tracking and surveillance efforts are not as effective as previously thought.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An article<\/a> in the New York Times referred to a Pew Research Center survey that found 61% of parents not only check their children\u2019s Internet history, but also reviewed their social media accounts, and cell phone history and messages.  \u201cParents now routinely keep tabs on their children\u2019s digital behavior in one form or another.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Alarmingly enough, this kind of technology also makes it possible to digitally monitor your partner, spouse or co-workers – or just about anyone else – and all without any of them ever knowing about it. Deleting your history or browsing in \u2018incognito mode\u2019 isn\u2019t enough \u2013 everything you do and say online, and everywhere you go in the real world, is tracked and knowable to whoever is monitoring you through this app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Who could have guessed that carrying around a device with a microphone, camera, built-in GPS, and messaging systems would ever compromise individual privacy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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