Phone Monitoring- What Should I Tell My Kids?

Parents! You have decided to monitor your kid’s phone. They are not entirely the most enthusiastic about this, and they are wondering why you have decided to do this to them since their friends’ parents don’t do it. However, they are actually mistaken. Many stats from the Pew Research Center claim that phone monitoring is more prevalent than many think, and here is some tips of advice to tell them why you are monitoring them:

Their friends' parents are monitoring them more than they think.

The Pew Research Center conducted a study of parents, children (between 13-17), and the digital monitoring of them. One of their main findings was that most parents actually check what their kids do online and have talked with them about good digital behaviors. A few interesting stats of note were:

• 65% of parents have taken away their children’s devices as a punishment.
• 61% have checked what websites their teens visit.
• 60% have looked at their kids’ social media accounts.
• 55% have limited the amount of times they allow their kids to go online.
• 48% have looked through their kids’ calls and texts.
• 39% have used parental controls.
• 16% have used phone monitoring software on their kids.

Show them some of these stats, and they will realize that you are like most parents who only want what is best for their kids’ regular and digital lives.

Mention some of the mounting problems they may encounter.

• Sexting is on the rise, and parents should be very aware of this. 80% of teenagers who have sexted are under the age of 18, and that number may only continue to rise. A whopping 57% of teens have been asked to send a sext, and sending one can lead to dangerous consequences down the road.
• Cyberbullying is a type of bullying that many parents are not familiar with. However, kids are becoming more and more aware of this since over 50% of them have been cyberbullied. Unfortunately, only 10% of them tell their parents, so it may be in your best intention to monitor their phone to potentially reduce or even stop cyberbullying.
• Online Predators are more prevalent now than they have ever been. What is concerning is that 20% of teens have been asked for unwanted sexual solicitation on the web. Like cyberbullying, many kids (25% this instance) do not tell their parents about their experiences. Even 33% of teens are friends with someone on Facebook they have never met, and these “friends” can potentially be online predators.
• Extortion is connected with sexting and online predators. In some instances sexual pictures can be held as a threat to the teenager who sent them. These people are online predators, and there are around 500,000 online everyday. Extortion also applies to personal information, as 56% of teens have been asked for personal information from people they have not met.
• A Digital Footprint is the term used for the footprint or trail that someone leaves online. This can be closely connected to a teenager’s social media accounts. When they are applying to schools, 31% of colleges look at their applicants’ social media accounts. Around 12% of applicants have been denied admission just because of what is on their social media accounts. Monitoring your kid’s phone can prevent this from happening.

Overall, tell them that you are coming out of a position of love. You just want the best for them, and monitoring them can prevent a mistake that may harm them in the future.