Should Parents Monitor Children's Social Media

Thursday, September 18, 2014
Literature
Maria Camelia Ureña
8A

The principle idea of this essay is to discuss how parents should or shouldn’t have a say in teen’s social media. Parents should be responsible for what they’re children are doing and because of this parents shouldn’t have control of their children and their use of social media. Social networking is composed by a series of applications and web pages that create a safe and entertaining environment. Sometimes, internet might not be as safe as it should be but parents should be able to monitor their kid’s thoughts not actions, in other words, this means that parents should teach their children to be responsible for what they do by themselves. There are many consequences when parents can’t trust their children like lack of communication and understanding. There are many reasons that parents should take in consideration before thinking to have a say in their children’s personal lives.

First of all, when parents monitor teen’s social media the trust is gone. This means that the parents aren’t trusting their kids. Instead of taking control of their children’s social media they should warn their children about the dangers in the world and teach them how to be responsible for what they do. If parents can’t trust their children on the internet, how can you trust them in the real world. What are parents going to do once their kids become 18. You should trust them to do what's right and make them remember what you’ve been teaching them during their whole childhood.

Another reason why parents shouldn’t have a say in teen’s social media is that they do not have the right to monitor their children's social media. Social media is a necessary part of a teen and a child's life, and it usually impacts them very much. Many social media sites help teens communicate and talk to friends. No teen wants a parent to monitor their chat messages with their friends. Everyone deserves to communicate with other people privately, even if that person is just a teen. Parents do not have a right to intrude their children's privacy like that.

And last, adolescents need to learn how to be responsible. The teenager years is the period between being a child and an adult. As an adult, you have to take full responsibility of yourself and every decision you make. By taking this privacy away, you are taking away the role model you were to him/her and breaking your relationship with your child. Parent-child relationships are the most crucial thing in anyone’s childhood. Being a parent is about guiding your child through the right path, and help them when they are taking important decisions in life.

In general, parents should be able to teach adolescents how to act properly by themselves in the internet. Most teens wish for 2 things in their lives: To have a private life and to be able to trust their closest ones. This encourages them to continue on with their lives since they know that someone is there for them in the good and bad moments in life.