Should Parents Monitor Children's Online Communications?

[Daltron]

If we take the term child to mean “any human being under the age of 18” under the UNCRC, should there be some form of monitoring or access for parents to see what their children are doing in the technological world?

A bit old of a statistic but a good starting point for this debate is that in the UK is that 1/3rd of households in 2004 used some form of filtering or blocking software to restrict or monitor children's online activity.
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/395/
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Should parents have the right to monitor children's online communications whether this be via mobile or computers etc?

Do you think there is a specific age where it is okay and then an approximate age when it's time for parents to stop?

Are there certain platforms or situations that exists where it might be permissible/inadmissible?

Overall thoughts?

[Lanyon]

Tough question! If I were a parent, I got to say yes when it comes to children being quite young but maybe as soon as they are about 15+ and have a good understanding of the dangers of social media and everything else that's crazy and wild on the internet then maybe it would be a good time to start letting them go. Definitely sometime between 15 and 17 is where I would completely let go and start giving them independence. At 18, they are on their own but will always be right by them for support!

[soaf]

Well This is a tough question but anyway I would tell them to not go to any social sites at all untill they are at least the mimium age which I would say about 15+

[Joshirin]

No lol, I'm 17 and if my mum was trying to see what I use... I'd tell her to get lost lol