Parents, Teens and Digital Monitoring

Introduction

Digital monitoring is essential for parents with teenagers, who may use the Internet as a hotbed of temptation. Recent research has identified the many ways parents keep a digital eye on their kids. The methods parents monitor and protect their children range from rules about screen time, ‘digital grounding’, checking up on search histories, and the good old fashion search. Recent research comes as a refreshing reminder that parents are remaining involved in their child’s online safety, as the need for it remains. However, in the cultural context of technology addiction it is unclear how these numbers reflect actions which instill young people with a sense of self outside of technology. 

Going to the Mattresses

The Pew Research Center recently released a massive study on how and the effectivity of parents digitally monitoring their teens. While the Internet has many resources and valuable outlets it also is a hotbed of corruption and danger for those who know where to look or are easily ensnared. So a balance must be struck, “between allowing independent exploration and providing an appropriate level of parental oversight. Digital connectivity offers many potential benefits from connecting with peers to accessing educational content. But parents have also voiced concerns about the behaviors teens engage in online” (Anderson). Research emphasizes that lawmakers share parental concerns as rates of child endangerment, gambling, bullying, etc. increase through the connectivity of the Internet (Anderson).

In support of this movement educators of young people are striving to instill a positive digital citizenship ethic. As students step up and out onto the Internet, the district wants to ensure that they understand the need to think before they post – to treat others with respect, to build and maintain a positive digital footprint, to protect their online privacy and the privacy of others, and to respect intellectual property boundaries. (EGUSD)

While this is a valuable effort, it remains to be seen if it will have a strong impact. After all, we are in the early stages of the Internet, social media, and one can only hope that the addiction to technology will eventually wear off as the newness does. 

Parents of teenagers aged 13-17 were recently studied to discover what parents are doing, and how they restrict digital use. Due to the fact that “digital technology has become so central to teens’ lives that a significant share of parents now employ a new tool to enforce family rules: ‘digitally grounding’ misbehaving kids” (Anderson). However, for this to be effective parents must ensure they take away the many ways kids can connect (phone, tablet, game console, computer, etc.). The PEW study found that “Some 65% of parents have taken their teen’s cellphone or internet privileges away as a punishment” (Anderson). Thankfully, reducing screen time with set expectations has been found to be a consistent rule for about 55% of the respondents (Anderson). Some of the other results;

• 61% of parents say they have ever checked which websites their teen visits.

• 60% have ever checked their teen’s social media profiles.

• 56% have ever friended or followed their teen on Facebook, Twitter or some other social media platform.

• 48% have ever looked through their teen’s phone call records or text messages.

• 48% of parents know the password to their teen’s email account

• 43% know the password to their teen’s cellphone

• 35% know the password to at least one of their teen’s social media accounts. (Anderson)

What Might the Numbers Hide?

These are very positive numbers. While some kids may find this an invasion of privacy, the very concept of privacy online is somewhat archaic. After all, the information and traffic on social media is there for anyone to see. Most parents in this demographic also report talking to their child about what is appropriate to view, and how it is appropriate to behave online. These statistics may not be as high for talking about sex issues with their teenager, and that would be an interesting comparison study. An interesting angle is that “Given the peaks of worry we’ve reached over various questions of our children’s online behavior in the past (sexting, bullying “Internet addiction,” privacy concerns) the result was a surprising level of national moderation” (Dell’antonia). This reality may mean that teens have caught wise to their parent’s monitoring techniques, and have learned to erase their search history, block certain posts, and delete questionable texts. 

Perhaps parents are setting rules, and monitoring, but their teens have found ways to hide their real practices. The question is if parents are doing right by laying off the traditional parental controls measures. For “When experts in technology and adolescent behavior weight in on the question of how to monitor teenagers online, the consistent message is that talk is more important than tools” (Dell’antonia). While this may be true from a sociological standpoint, it begs the question if teens are taking advantage of that trust. 

In regards to technology addiction, how pervasive the smart phone has become has profound implications for the development of social interaction. One wonders if parents should allow a teenager a smart phone. Gia, a 13 year old admits, “I would rather not eat for a week than get my phone taken away. It's really bad. I literally feel like I'm going to die” (Hadad). Considering the rates of adolescent eating disorders there is nothing positive about this confession. The extreme rates at which people of all ages engage with their smart phone is a grave cause for concern for those who do not have their face in a phone. Another 13 year old, Kyla admits, “When I get my phone taken away, I feel kind of naked. I do feel kind of empty without my phone” (Hadad). This emptiness is felt all throughout culture as the ravages of technology addiction gut social relations and the quality of communication across most all boards. 

Now, when considering digital monitoring in the light of widespread cultural technology addiction it is quite difficult for parents to enforce standards they do not keep themselves. While the reported numbers of monitoring appear good, it may not reflect the reality of the entire family being on the phone/computer way too much. Also, this does not even touch on video games or television, and for a good amount of Western children they are rarely without one or more forms of digital enhancement. While this could be a fine time for playing with new toys for humanity, when it leaves people feeling neurotically empty, or dead, it is a cause for serious concern. 

This concern is not readily apparent in the studies or in the online community. Which makes sense, people who are online are not there to call for moderation, but looking for attention. For many people around the world smartphone addiction has proved deadly. If its not someone walking in front of traffic, “Things escalated recently with the death of a Polish medical student, after she tragically plunged to her death while trying to take the perfect selfie. The accident followed a rash of equally dangerous selfies taken with bears” (Boxall). This endemic of mindlessness has recently seen an increase due to the Pokemon Go game. 

Pokemon Go has resulted in many deaths in the few months since its release, and even more crimes. As a result, the Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro is speaking out about the negative impact of Pokemon Go. Saying that the game is evidence of a death culture, Maduro emphasizes, they create [young people] virtual realities, [and] this debate must be open to the world and our society. The generation of a culture that virtual realities all linked to weapons, violence, and death. Or virtual realities with the new game out there of Pokémon Go. Do you know it? They are virtual realities and thousands of [young and adult people] end up living in a virtual when virtual reality and kill from the first age. (Weichhart)

This type of detachment is not only dangerous it does not help children feel a part of the world in which their ingenuity and passion is literally required to overcome the challenges of climate change. Noticeably absent in the PEW study were specifics concerning such measures of addiction, and indeed this is an area which requires immediate study and commentary before too much psychological damage is done. Research has found that Nomophobia (fear of being without your smartphone) affects 40% of the population, and the implications for this new phobia are startling (Archer). research into Nomophobia (which sounds like no-my-) investigated the emotional nuances of its only to find that when people misplace their phone people feel;

• 73% Panicked

• 14 % Desperate

• 7% Sick

• 6% Relieved (Archer)

The 6% who are relieved are somewhat in touch with how damaging their smartphone addiction is, and there is hope they will try to develop self-control. However, for the majority this trend is only getting worse; now Americans are bringing their smartphones into the bedroom. That's right -- texting while having sex. A recently released study indicated one in ten participants admitted to having used their phone during sex. As far as young adults, ages 18 to 34, make that one in five -- 20 percent. (Archer)

Conclusion

Parents actions monitoring their teens’ online activity may be a whole lot of lip service as they engage in the same type of addiction they are attempting to shield their child from. Protecting the young from questionable influences online is only one part of protecting from having their entire sense of self defined by their online status. There is evidence that parents are missing the point, and likely because they are too involved in their smartphones to recognize the addiction.

Works Cited

Anderson, Monica. “Parents, Teens and Digital Monitoring.” Pew Research Center, 7 Jan. 2016. Retrieved from: http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/01/07/parents-teens-and-digital-monitoring/

Anderson, Monica. “How parents monitor their teen’s digital behavior.” Pew Research Center, 7 Jan. 2016. Retrieved from: http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/01/07/how-parents-monitor-their-teens-digital-behavior/

Archer, Dale. “Smartphone Addiction.” Psychology Today, 25 Jul. 2013. Retrieved from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reading-between-the-headlines/201307/smartphone-addiction

Boxall, Andy. “Forget Ebola, We’ve turned our Smartphones into Silent Killing Machines.” Digital Trends, 8 Nov. 2014. Retrieved from: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/smartphones-silent-killers-demand-respect-dont/

Dell’antonia, KJ. “Parents Monitoring Teenagers Online, and Mostly, Getting It Right.” The New York Times, 7 Jan. 2016. Retrieved from: http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/01/07/parents-monitoring-teenagers-online-and-mostly-getting-it-right/?_r=0

EGUSD. “Parents, Teens and Digital Monitoring.” Egusd.net, 8 Jan. 2016. Retrieved from: http://blogs.egusd.net/digitalcitizenship/2016/01/08/parents-teens-and-digital-monitoring/

Hadad, Chuck. “Why some 13-year-olds check social media 100 times a day.” CNN, 13 Oct. 2015. Retrieved from: http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/05/health/being-13-teens-social-media-study/index.html

Weichhart, Eric. “Venezuela President Says Pokémon Go Is Part of a Death Culture.” Nintendo Enthusiast, 29 Jul. 2016. Retrieved from: http://nintendoenthusiast.com/news/venezuela-president-says-pokemon-go-is-part-of-a-death-culture/