Many parents over the past few years have wondered desperately for a way to get kids off their phones, and more importantly a way to monitor what they do on their phones. The majority of these parents have resorted to “old school” methods such as reading text messages and checking their browsers for anything suspicious. However, children have gotten around these things by erasing their text messages or clearing their browser history. With the introduction of smart-phones, parental control is almost non-existant– until now.
A smartphone, such as the latest Samsung Galaxy S3, and the iPhone 5 have limitless activities in which a child can divulge. However, not all of these activities are safe to use. According to the McGruff Safeguard Survey, 74 percent of teens spend at least one hour online via smartphone and 48 percent spend at least three hours. The Survey also shows that 36 percent of teens has accessed sexual content online and 32 percent has accessed pornographic images or nude photos online. That is a strikingly high number of teens that are unrestricted by parents.
To address this issue, McGruff, McAfee, AVG, and various other top-notch companies have introduced parental apps for smartphones. These apps restrict, or put a “digital fence” around what the teen can access. They also give parents access to texts and browsing history from a remote Web server. For example, Net Nanny, an Android parental app, creates categories of websites to block. Pornography, nudity, gambling, and profanity are just a few of the malice that this app blocks.
Although this seems like an unequivocal boon for many parents, many teens feel like their parents’ watchfulness may infringe their personal rights. Johnny Yu, a sophomore from Troy High School says simply, “OMG, no. That would be an invasion of my privacy.”
Gawon Shin, a freshman also from Troy jokes, “I would throw my phone into the sea.”
The final question remains: should parents regulate their children’s activity with a smartphone app, or choose to completely trust their kids?
