Snooping: Mother and Children Essay

Trust for Access

Invasion of privacy or parental right? That’s what seems to be the immense question surrounding the articles given. In such a media and social network frenzied world, I can understand why parents and or guardians have a case to be skeptical of what their kids are doing and who they are talking to. The media-fueled uproar over sexting and other smartphone violations has undoubtedly had an influence on parent’s behavior with their kids’ mobile devices. According to related sources, 65% of parents snoop on kids’ smartphones, and 29% track their location at any given time. So now that we know a little background information, we go back to the big question everyone is still trying to figure out. Is it or is it not okay to intrude on the privacy of your children to ensure a greater good of guaranteeing their safety and welfare?
Personally, I never caught my mom going through my phone or even caring enough to find software to track what I was saying and who I was saying it to. But she did use the global positioning system (GPS) on my phone to track my location from time to time to confirm I was at the places I said was going to be if she became somewhat uncertain. At the time I felt like she was kind of being a little overprotective and too concerning, but when I look back at it now I definitely can understand why she did what she did. I can understand the aspect of parents and or guardians constantly worrying about their children’s safety 24/7. All cases are different clearly, but in my case, my mom did not track my location because a lack of trust, but simply because tracking my whereabouts gave her a peace of mind.
While reading the articles you can sense the mother knew what she was doing in a sense was pretty unjust in terms of her children. She states after telling a fellow friend/parent how she had been monitoring her children, the other parent in fact responded saying, “She was horrified. How could I do this, she asked, when it was such an invasion of my childrens’ privacy?” She then justified it saying, “That my children really have no expectation of privacy while they are under my roof. In a sense, I figured they were subject to my laws rather than those of the Constitution — within reason, of course.” It’s pretty evident the mother played more of a role then the father did in terms of snooping on their children as a complete whole. The article states, “The only thing remotely interesting that turned up was a conversation about smoking pot one night at a friend’s party.” So right then and there after all of that snooping, that was really the only REAL information the parents came across. After realizing that I think the father felt what he and his wife was doing was essentially wrong, and he states that, “Eventually, I stopped looking at the emailed chat logs that the software forwarded me, and went back to not paying much attention to what my daughter did online.”
The parents are ultimately displaying a utilitarianism mind frame. Utilitarianism is a philosophy in which one should always act in according to the greatest good for the majority of the people. At the time the parents felt snooping on their children was wrong, but for the greater good of protecting them from what the web entailed they felt they were making the right decision. In the end I think if they could do things differently, I honestly think they would.
For me to say I agree or disagree on if the actions displayed was the right thing to do, I cannot. Simply because I think to take these unjust options into decision, it honestly just depends on what kind of children you have. If you have a child that tends to act up, and you actually have to worry what his/her next action, this may be something you may do. But for those parents who are doing things of this nature and you have a child who is whole-heartedly a good kid, and has good intentions, I don’t think it’s a smart move to risk your children’s trust for a better peace of

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