New app allows parents to view kids’ phone conversations and social media activity 

Pro

Kassandra Perez

TeenSafe is a new monitoring service that gives parents the opportunity to monitor their children’s cell phones and social media; this may help prevent teens from following negative influences and create a safe environment.

Throughout social media, exposure to drugs, alcohol, gangs, violence, and sexual content is abundant. This suggests to the public that this content is not anything bad. The majority of the people who see this end up wanting to follow because they see it as something that everyone must be enjoying.

If parents have the ability to monitor their teens, they can help prevent these sort of activities.

As well, monitoring cell phone activity can help parents see if their child is going through an emotional struggle such as depression. Some teens like to post their emotions online for everyone to see. Parents can know when their child is going though a rough time in their life, or they can see if their child is being bullied. Seeing this type of behavior, parents can have a chance to talk to their child, see what’s going on, and help cease the situation.

Having honesty with parents makes for a good relationship with them because it creates trust. Teens hiding their lives and lying to parents makes everything go downhill.

It’s definitely hard to be truthful, and not everyone is perfect; however, keeping major secrets from them is problematic. All parents want is to keep their child safe, and monitoring phones keeps an honest relationship. This sort of monitoring can also have parents keep their child away from any bad decisions.

All a teenager wants in life is to have privacy, but because they’re under eighteen, their parents have the right to look into their social media and phones to make sure they’re safe.

Con

Maria Granados

With the amount and speed of technology that is available in the world, it is easier than ever to keep as much private as possible.  On the other hand, technological advances are finding ways to invade that privacy.

New apps are making it easier than ever to access this information, and often, that person whose information is being invaded is unaware of that fact.

One new app that has recently grown in popularity is named TeenSafe. It is compatible with both Android and iPhone and allows parents to see exactly what his or her teenager is saying to everyone.

A teenager is not allowed any privacy on any app; TeenSafe gathers texts and iMessages, all phone calls, location, browser activity and history, and information from Whatsapp, Kik Messenger, Instagram, and Facebook. There is no way for a teen to keep things they say in private to themselves.

Though parents do have the right to look out for their own children, an app such as this is going to an extreme. Teenagers usually do not know that the app is even on their phone, since it’s completely invisible unless they decide to dig around in their phone for the app specifically.

Making harmful decisions is a definite possibility for everyone, but teenagers still deserve the right to have at least some privacy, a place where parents can’t see what they’re saying; sometimes it’s even their “safe space.”

Just as an adult would feel violated if their personal conversations were laid out for a third party to see, so would a teenager.

The invasion may create a sense of distrust between the teenager and their parents. Monitoring a teen’s every word on every single app may lead them to go out of their way to keep their conversations private, even leading them to make even more harmful decisions.