Is Monitoring Your Child an Invasion of Privacy?
This is a tricky question I often get from parents. I answer with an analogy that social media and digital technology is almost like driving a car. Do you just hand your kids the keys when they are of age to drive? Nope. They have formal training through Drivers Education and then you as a parent have to sit in the passenger seat helping and guiding them. Why? Because although a car is a powerful and amazing tool, if used irresponsibly, you can crash, hurt yourself or someone else.
Social media is similar to a car — if used irresponsibly, you can hurt yourself or others. Do NOT feel bad monitoring them, especially early on. You have to see what they are doing from a distance so you can step in and give guidance when needed.
As Your Child Gets Older
As your child gets older, you may start trusting them more to make the smart decisions with their devices. You can choose not to monitor them or monitor them less frequently. Let them know that you trust them, but if that trust is ever broken, the frequent monitoring will return and they will need to earn your trust back.
NOTE: Regardless of their age, I think it’s important for parents to ALWAYS have the logins/passwords for all of your child’s devices. If there was ever an emergency situation and you needed access to those devices, you want to be able to access them.
Best Monitoring and Screen Time Control Apps
Monitoring Gaming
Most kids games have parental monitoring capabilities. For example, here is the instructions of how to monitor the popular kids game, Roblox.
