Monitoring Emails and Chatting By Teens

An article in the New York Times called "The Undercover Parent" discusses the importance of monitoring email communications and chat room conversations by teens. The very nature of the medium means that parents should be monitoring their children--closely. The question is whether this violates the teen's right to privacy.

Although the article doesn't mention it, texting would probably fall into this category too.

Teens have been pushing the limit ever since technology began to expand the horizons of young adults. When telephones came into their lives, parents had to deal with new ways of communicating. However, phone conversations are much more public than conversations that children and teenagers are engaging in online.

Supervision and monitoring are extremely important in this technological medium. Moreover, the computer is not always a private place and your teen needs to be aware of that. Talk to your teen about his participation in such forums. Find out who he is talking to. Take the computer out of the bedroom and place it in the family room. Use the computer or chat room as a mechanism to start talking to your teen. Who do they like to talk to? Who are their friends talking to? Parents need to expand the means of communication as teens will continue to find ways to avoid