Do you check Facebook/Myspace?
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| Tue, 08-14-2007 - 8:47pm |
I have a question for everyone. Do you ever look at your child's Facebook/Myspace? I do occasionally check my dd's Facebook just to see what's happening. I sure it may seem like an invasion of privacy (at least to my dd) but I do feel that this isn't a journal or a diary, it's basically a public blog.
Well, the other day, I did see a comment from my dd to her cousin, who lives nearby, thanking her for getting her out of a jam at a concert. I have to admit I got very concerned about this and was worried that maybe she had been drinking or something (I have never caught her drinking before) but I know that a couple of her friends have been caught in the past drinking with other friends. Well, I thought I should have a talk with her and ask her if she needed to tell me anything about the concert and that I had seen her comments on Facebook. Well, she assured me that nothing happened, that one of her friends had ditched her at the concert so she hung out with her cousin instead. Then she blew up with me about looking at her Facebook. I basically answered that whether she liked it or not, I would look at it from time to time. It was funny how she was trying to turn this into a situation of me doing something wrong.
Well, anyway, am I the only parent out there who looks at their kid's Facebook? I really didn't want to tell her that I look at it but I was concerned about her safety.
Thanks for the input. Di

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Anyone have any ideas?
I'm thinking along the lines of grounded for life and locked in closet with no internet access forever. Seeing as I have to work, this isn't possible. If I totally get rid of her myspace page, she's crafty enough to create another and will find a way.
Someone help me on this one please!
The way she worded it, I've invaded her whole life and her privacy! C'mon, and I get to feel like the bad guy for snooping!?!
thanks for the reply!
It's very interesting to me that our kids are so quick to accuse us of intruding on their privacy because my dd did the same thing to me. :-) I have repeatedly told her that as far as her Dad and I are concerned Facebook is a public blog and isn't private at all. If she wants privacy she can keep a journal in her room which I would respect and not look at. But, why is it okay for a complete stranger to contact them on Facebook, request to be their friend, and then look at all their info and that's not infringing on their privacy? Their logic cracks me up...they just know that if their parents look at their page, that Mom and Dad might see something that may incriminate them. You know, I've never told my dd that since her older cousins look at her facebook, it's always possible that they may say something to their parents about what they've seen and it might get back to me. Hey, let the chips fall where they may. So far, my dd has been a good kid and hasn't caused us any problems but I just want to keep her safe. I would never forgive myself if something happened to her.
I remember hearing someone on the news saying that you have to look at these websites as though there's always the possibility of someone contacting them who is pedophile and to look at the Web as: would you send your child down a dark alley in the city and let them talk to a complete stranger and tell that stranger everything about themselves? I thought that was sage advice.
I'm not sure what you mean - when you say "checking her page" do you mean actually using her password to go into her page, or viewing her page?
If you're viewing it, you're NOT invading her privacy - it's a public website. You can look at whatever you want. As one parent said, if you don't want other people to read your journal, use a book - and a pen.
If you're actually accessing her page using her password, you ARE invading her privacy. Whether your feel it's justified or not (and there are opinions here on both sides), that's exactly what you're doing. Trying to convince your DD that you're NOT invading her privacy is rather futile, because it is in fact what you are doing.
If you've decided, as a parent, that it's ok, or it's your responsibility, or obligation, or you have a reason, to access your children's email and/or websites through THEIR passwords, I'd give up on trying to convince them it's ok - let them know you're the parent, this is the decision you've made, and they're going to have to live with it.
They'll get over it eventually - they always do.
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This is your opinion, and I respect that. But I think one can also be of the opinion that accessing their page by using their password is not an invasion of privacy at all. Not when your child knows you have the password and you've told them that you will periodically monitor them.
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