HW 7: Monitor the Time

I think that middle school children deserve privacy just as much as any other person would, whether they are an adult or child. I believe that children need to figure out who they are and express themselves; they often do this by Internet using social networks, chat rooms, and instant messaging. These pre teens and teens don’t know what they are saying, they don’t realize the meaning behind what they say, or they don’t even mean what they say. Yes these kids go through a stage online where “everything parents fear is true” (Kline and Bustein 351) but these are only stages. This is why I believe middle school students internet activity shouldn’t be monitored all the time. A parent’s worst fear is that their child will not be accepted, or will fail in life. The way these teenagers talk on the internet makes their parents worst fear come true. The way these kids express themselves is how they get through life. They shouldn’t have to hold back how they feel on the internet…to an extent. Yes, there is an extent to monitoring children’s internet activity. When teenagers are writing, “the kinds of posts that fulfill a parents worst paranoia” (Kline and Bustein 354) such as explaining every detail on the internet, or posting inappropriate pictures, this is when I think the parent needs to step in and monitor what’s being exposed. As much as these children need to be themselves, they need to be careful and appropriate while doing so. In my own experience my parents didn’t monitor everything I was doing, my time was monitored. I had a certain amount of time that I was allowed on the computer. As I grew older I started to share things with my parents. I grew more comfortable with them, telling them what was going on, I let them be my friends. In conclusion I feel that if children have an appropriate amount of privacy on the computer, they’ll thank their parents. I feel that children will share more things with their parents if their parents don’t bother their kids to share things when they’re not ready.