Kids need surveillance, but not the type you’re imaging. The sinister kind to which I refer to is spyware. Parental spyware is the action of monitoring your children through the use of spyware technology such as; secret GPS, apps that track internet history and text messages, and other such invasions of privacy. There are infrequent events that may bring on the need for parental spyware, depending on the kid, but in general parental spyware is the wrong way to go because it is an invasion of privacy and children can’t learn from their mistakes if they can’t make them. Parental spyware is the wrong decisions in most cases because kids must learn from their own mistakes and it is a massive invasion of privacy. In the first instance, spyware…show more content… Mistakes are typically unwelcomed, but you learn from them and aren’t kids always told they need to learn as much as they can before they hit eighteen. Kids and adults alike won’t fully grasp the gravity of a situation until they are the ones to face the consequences. That is what childhood is all about; making mistakes and learning and yes, there is a point where parents must step in to prevent bodily or irreversible damage to themselves or others, but in most cases those instances are too far and in between for parental spyware to be an everyday occurrence. As stated by Ellen Goodman in her article, “Big Brother Meets Big Mother,” (2007), “... we [parents] may be protecting them [teenagers] right out of the ability to make their own decisions. Including their own mistakes,” (Goodman, par.11). Kids are thrown out into the big, wild world and are expected to cope, if they know nothing then they are going to fall flat. And it isn't enough to be told the stories of your parent’s mistakes, as stated before nobody fully comprehend the severity of an action until they have to deal with the backlash. Another reason spyware is unjust is because it is an immense invasion of privacy. Adults prize privacy above most other things and yet teens aren’t even granted a fraction of
