It is parents’ job to know where their kids are and what they are up to. But opening their e-mails, rifling through their room, sifting through their journals and their cell phones is not as acceptable as many parents would like to think. Many parents whose children are about to or have just stepped into their teens want to know how much privacy they should give their kids and where they should draw the line.

Making Digital Space Safe for Them

With much of teens’ and tweens’ life unfolding on the internet and on cell phones, parents might feel clueless. It is okay to monitor your child’s activities in order to give them a safe cyberspace. It is hard for parents to ignore even the slightest suspicion that their kids are visiting banned websites or receiving text messages inappropriate for their age.

Moreover your kids and their behavior is your responsibility. But a much better way to monitor your children’s activities in cyberspace is to use online parental control software instead of taking their passwords and checking the web history every day.

Trust: A Sensitive Issue

Monitoring your teens or tweens might have its repercussions. Kids need to know their parents trust them. It helps them make right decisions. Parents need to make it clear what they approve of and what they don’t but the end decision lies with the kid. Parental trust and involvement is going to help them choose right from wrong.

Many child experts agree that it is better to give your child the freedom to choose between rights and wrong themselves instead of dictation their choices for them.

However many parents think it is necessary to monitor a child’s internet activities in this world of cyberbullying, cyberstalking and sexting. On the other hand, some parents believe that the kids need their privacy to be respected. They have their own minds to make decisions for themselves. But parents are responsible for bringing them up right so that they have the sense of choosing between right and wrong.