Social media monitoring services stir debate
Parents aim to keep kids safe online, but children may resent involvement
By Laura Devaney, Managing Editor
Read more by Laura Devaney
Some companies offer services that update parents when children post unsafe information online.
As cyber bullying and inappropriate online behaviors become more commonplace in today’s technology-rich world, some companies are offering services that alert parents when their children are at risk or are misbehaving on a social network. Critics say the services amount to spying, but supporters say they open lines of communication and help children understand what is and is not acceptable online.
The services typically work like this: A parent opens a Facebook account and runs the monitoring service as an application. Once the parent and child are “friends” on Facebook, the parent invites the child to run the monitoring service as an application on the child’s own Facebook account.
When the child accepts the application, the parent is notified and able to view their child’s Facebook activities only when the service detects pre-selected words or phrases that the parent deems worrisome or inappropriate. Some services also send notifications when children establish new friendships on Facebook, or when their children are tagged in photos on the site.
Social media monitoring services include:
SafetyWeb
SocialShield
AOL Safe Social
Company representatives say the services are necessary even if a parent and child are “friends” on a social networking site, because sites such as Facebook let users choose how much personal information—including wall posts and photos—their different friends can see. These monitoring services notify parents regardless of the parent’s permission status.
Chicago-based TrueCare introduced a social media monitoring service that tracks a child’s use of popular social networking services, including Facebook and Twitter, for inappropriate content.
Parents are notified with real-time alerts whenever questionable content is found on a child’s social networking profile. TrueCare sends an eMail with the full content and context of the post, along with a link to the page.
The $9.99-a-month service will search a child’s social media accounts, including posts, photo captions, and friends’ posts, for more than 500 keywords from categories such as bullying, suicide, and drugs. It also includes an online reference dictionary of slang and acronyms.
“These problems, whether they be cyber bullying, damaged reputations, or online predators, are real issues that our kids deal with,” said David Barker, product manager for TrueCare. “Parents, schools, and teachers lack the tools, and perhaps the resources, to help kids protect themselves.”
Jessica Reeves
February 8, 2011 at 11:44 am
I think it is my duty as a teacher of literacy to include social media literacy…I just blogged on this topic:
http://msjessicareeves.edublogs.org/2011/02/03/teaching-responsible-social-media-literacy-the-problem-with-over-sharing-on-facebook-and-twitter/
I hope this helps!
Jess
http://msjessicareeves.edublogs.org
Jessica Reeves
February 8, 2011 at 11:44 am
I think it is my duty as a teacher of literacy to include social media literacy…I just blogged on this topic:
http://msjessicareeves.edublogs.org/2011/02/03/teaching-responsible-social-media-literacy-the-problem-with-over-sharing-on-facebook-and-twitter/
I hope this helps!
Jess
http://msjessicareeves.edublogs.org
CraigEl
February 8, 2011 at 11:55 am
Go ahead and call it spying if you want, it is a better idea than educating. Remember back when you were a kid. Who knew better, you or your parents? Being honest with yourself, your parents knew nothing about being a kid. Same rule applies today. With the way our culture is today, children feel they have just as many rights as adults do. the fact is, until they are eighteen, they do not. It isn’t a matter of trusting or not trusting your child either. Most of our kids are trustworthy. The problem lies in them trying to right a wrong. Online is not the place to do it. As we all know so many things can be taken out of context, stated incorrectly or just said without thinking first. All of that is now out there for all to see forever. By using the “spying tools” concerned parents can now step in before things escalate out of control.
Remember, the world our children are growing up in is much smaller and more angry than the world we grew up in. Mistakes we made with others took longer to manifest and went away quicker than they do now. The digital world is much faster and has a longer memory.
CraigEl
February 8, 2011 at 11:55 am
Go ahead and call it spying if you want, it is a better idea than educating. Remember back when you were a kid. Who knew better, you or your parents? Being honest with yourself, your parents knew nothing about being a kid. Same rule applies today. With the way our culture is today, children feel they have just as many rights as adults do. the fact is, until they are eighteen, they do not. It isn’t a matter of trusting or not trusting your child either. Most of our kids are trustworthy. The problem lies in them trying to right a wrong. Online is not the place to do it. As we all know so many things can be taken out of context, stated incorrectly or just said without thinking first. All of that is now out there for all to see forever. By using the “spying tools” concerned parents can now step in before things escalate out of control.
Remember, the world our children are growing up in is much smaller and more angry than the world we grew up in. Mistakes we made with others took longer to manifest and went away quicker than they do now. The digital world is much faster and has a longer memory.
CraigEl
February 10, 2011 at 5:04 pm
Excellent blog on the suject. All 4 of those are problem areas. By laying it out like you did, you show every aspect of why parent would want to monitor how their children act online. Even if we trust our children they may not always make the best decisions. Many parents are not as tech savy as their children (OK, most) but they do know not to over share. If parents could some how be as tech savy as the kids we would not have the problem we have now.
Also, to add to the pics that you can’t stand I would like to add the camera pointing down “I just sucked a lemon” look. I bet most of the girls have no idea what that actually looks like to guys.
CraigEl
February 10, 2011 at 5:04 pm
Excellent blog on the suject. All 4 of those are problem areas. By laying it out like you did, you show every aspect of why parent would want to monitor how their children act online. Even if we trust our children they may not always make the best decisions. Many parents are not as tech savy as their children (OK, most) but they do know not to over share. If parents could some how be as tech savy as the kids we would not have the problem we have now.
Also, to add to the pics that you can’t stand I would like to add the camera pointing down “I just sucked a lemon” look. I bet most of the girls have no idea what that actually looks like to guys.