“It is 10 PM, do you know where your kids are?” There was a time when this public service announcement used to run during the evening news every day. Today, if you want to know where your kids are, you will probably approach your smartphones to call them or text them.
But do you actually believe they are telling the truth about their whereabouts? In this digital parenting century, knowing the whereabouts of your kidsis not enough. You have to know who they are talking to, who they hang out with and how they are using social media to connect to the world.
An effective way parents are keeping up with their kids is text monitoring software for iPhone and Android phones. Parents say they need a window into their child’s digital world and that’s why they holding onto a text message spying app. It gives them a peak of the digital life of their kids, their whereabouts and friends.
If you still think keeping tabs on your children is not necessary, then go through these statistics. According to the World Bank’s report, there are 650 million mobile users in Africa and this number is surpassing the figure of Europe and theUnited States. People have access to mobile phones more than clean water. The mobile technology surely has become a game changer in Africa.
Amanda Lenhart, a Pew researcher, in a report, said that American teens, especially the African-American teens have embraced smartphones because they offer access to people and information 24/7. She found that 90% of the teens exchange text messages and on average, they receive 30 messages per day.
If you are a parent, ask yourself, do you know what they are talking about in these conversations? What if that conversation is not healthy for your child?
The regretful case of a mother
We are sharing a regretful case of a mother who wished she had a way of knowing what was going on in her kid’s life.
Danielle Briggs was a bright kid who committed suicide after reading a ‘hate’ text message. His mother Amy Briggs in aninterview told that he was bullied at school because of being small. As he was promoted to high school, the bullying increased, but little did she know about it. Danielle got a text message from one of the kids at school. The message said ‘do us a favor, pick a gunshot and kill yourself.’ He took this message to heart and killed himself. His mother, all surrounded by grief, said that if only she was using a text message spying app, she could know what’s going on in her child’s life.
Is it ok to use text message spying app?
It’s fair to question is it really ethical to use an app to spy on your kid? Well, everyone has their own opinion. Some parents say that it’s parenting not spying. Here is a little case study of a single dad who thinks it’s totally ethical to use an app to monitor kids.
John Furjanic, a father of a 7-year old daughter, said that even when his daughter was an infant, he used to spy on her all the time with a baby monitor. As children grow older, the risks they might run into grow too. A text message spying app is just a like a baby monitor that tells you your child is safe.
So, when you shouldn’t spy?
Spying is not always recommended, especially if your childrenmeet their responsibilities, abide by their curfew, actually hang out with friends they say they hang out with and in other words, you do not have any reason to be suspicious about them. It’s not that parents spy on their kids because they don’t trust them. What they actually don’t trust are the people and technology around them.
The only exception is when you are monitoring them to be sure they are safe and for that, you have their consent. Here is another parent’s case study:
Megan uses xnspy.com a text message spying app to know her son is safe. She uses the app occasionally to check her locations, goes through his text messages to make sure there is no sexting or bullying involved and even looks into social media to see how she is representing herself to the online world. Her son knows that she uses Xnspy to monitor him time after time and he is ok with it.
Respect the digital conversations of your child
Kids expect their parents to respect the privacy of their digital conversations. It is just like reading their journal when they are not around.
