Attention DCIS students! Our parents are becoming more crafty in finding ways to get us in “trouble”! They track us down and block our favorite sites. Unforgivable.  

In 2014, a study was done by the New York Post to discuss whether or not parents should spy on their children’s electronic devices. Results showed that 60% of parents believed they should be able to snoop on their children’s electronics.

Should parents have this type of power? It would depend on how extreme they are about it. If they are playing CIA and watching your every move, it’s a problem. On the other hand, if there weren’t parents to monitor things, there might be chaos. Kids would be able to go on any site and could be exposed to bad things on the web. They could get bullied or get into all sorts of trouble. They can go on inappropriate sites and can stumble upon something that’s totally wrong.

On the other hand, it is parents who will block anything you may love. The HOWL. YouTube. Even cute pictures of puppies. There shouldn’t be this type of distrust. There should be earned trust and compromise.

But don’t forget the kids who do need more extreme monitoring. This type of kid has pushed the rules too many times, and they might have lost trust. Now parents have to resort to monitoring their child 24/7.

“I think it’s really important that parents monitor their kids while they are on the internet. Unfortunately, in this day and age we have people who do not have the best interests of kids in mind,” said Mrs. Keck. “My kids are older and I think that their world was a little bit safer than it is today. I think it is really important that parents are involved with their kids. In all areas of their life.”

Parents should be there to be trusted figures when it comes to electronics. We don’t know everything about what’s out there, and as junior highers, we don’t need to find out.

“I think that when your kids are young, which is probably high-school aged and down [minors] and when they still live with you, it’s critical to monitor where they are on the internet,” said Mrs. Hutchinson. “It has all sorts of bad things that can happen to them. All sorts of lures that can tempt them away. You wouldn’t just let them walk in the streets in the middle of the night.”

Surfing the internet is just like that. Anything can come up and [kids] can see things they shouldn’t see, hear things they shouldn’t hear and learn things they shouldn’t be learning,” said Mrs. Hutchinson. “As a good parent, it is the most important things you can do to monitor them. Girls get lured away on the internet by bad men and bad people. I’m sure boys do as well. Maybe not quite as much, but they can just see things they shouldn’t see.”

Over the years there have been countless stories of kids and adults who’ve gone missing because of catfishing (to pretend to be somebody you are on the internet). It makes does make sense to look out for these things and parents can provide that help.

“It is very important to have parents monitor what their children are looking at and listening to on the internet. There’s bad people in the world,” said Mr. Henry. “Just like what you would monitor what your kids watch on TV and who they are hanging out with. Same thing on the internet.”

Maybe parents doing this isn’t so unforgivable.