Spyware: The Undercover Parent By Harlan Coben

Harlan Coben in an editorial titled ¨The Undercover Parent”(March 16,2008) claims that parents should have conversations about their concerns with teens, and let them know spyware is a possibility. Coben develops and supports his claim by using anecdotes. One example of an anecdote Coben uses is in paragraph one,¨… friends of mine confessed over dinner that they had spyware on their 15 year-old son’s computer so they could monitor all he did online.¨ He also supports his claim because he is giving the parents a decision on if they want to use spyware or not. The intended audience for this article is parents because this article is about protecting your kids while they are online and to prevent bad things to happen. I both agree and disagree

According to guardchild.com, 17% of teens surveyed stated that they received an email or an online message with photos or words that made them feel uncomfortable, and only 7% of parents were aware of this. In an article titled “The Undercover Parent” by Harlan Coben, it explains about the idea about parents using spyware on their children. Everything a child types can already be seen by the world, even pedophiles or online bullies. Coben supports the idea; however, he feels that showing the article to a child is better because it can lead to a to a conversation about concerns the parents may have. Parents should monitor their children’s online behavior because they want to keep their children safe from cyber bullies and pedophiles.

In Harlan Cobens article “The Undercover Parent” (2008), he states that spyware is a good thing to have on your childs computer, and at first I disagreed. But, after a lot of thought, I now agree with Cobens point of view.

In this Coben tries to get the reader to think the idea of spyware is a good thing and not so bad as it sounds. It sometimes helps reduce negative feelings by explaining what spyware is and how easy it is to get. When Coben says, "you have the ability to log every keystroke your child makes and thus a good portion of his or her private world" it does kinda scare the reader a little because of how he phrases some words but then he adds, "that’s what spyware is—at least the parental monitoring kind" this reassure the reader. "Am I suggesting eavesdropping on every conversation? No. With new technology comes new responsibility" this statement shows us that he feels that we shouldn't eavesdrop on every conversation Which makes the reader think that now it won't be such a time

As the Internet developed, it brings a lot of benefits, such as getting information much quicker; however, it also brings problem. One problem that Internet brings to today’s society is children’s safety on virtual world; there are a lot of temptations attract kids on the Internet. This issue Coben discusses is a particularly controversial one because it’s hard for parents ignore the dangerous on the Internet; on the other hand, if parents surveillance kids’ privacy world, it’s really embarrassed for children. How could we solve this problem? What is a compromise way for both parents and children? Coben thinks parents should use spyware on the computer, but not surreptitious doing this; parents should tell

The title of the essay is The Undercover Parents, which was written by Harlan Coben. The essay was published on the 16th of March, 2008. In the essay, Coben presents his main ideas and thoughts regarding the use of spyware by parents to monitor children. He says that installing a spyware on the computer used by children, especially those in the teenage years, can help parents track what actually their children view on computers. In the essay, the author says that while it is quite hard to follow up on children while they are away from home and this causes parents to be so worried, installing spyware on the computers in the house really helps. Coben says that the program allows parents to keep track of the children

Every day teenagers use the internet, whether it’s on their phones or on the computers at school or at home. Their lives are practically centered around it. They’re connecting with each other on social media such as: Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and even online video games, and this has is benefits, but it can also have some negative and possibly dangerous situations. The internet is not a safe haven for anyone or anything. In the article “The Undercover Parent” the author, Harlan Coben, makes the argument that spyware is alright to be used by parents on their kids computers as long as the parents are using the software responsibly. I agree with Coben’s statements because of his solid arguments of dangerous conversations, privacy, and bullying.

Harlen Coben in an editorial titled “The Undercover Parent” (March 16, 2008) claims that parents should have conversations about their concerns with teens, and let them know how spyware is a possibility.Should parents of teens and tweens go undercover? Harlen Coben, the author is trying to make parents have conversations with their teens and tween about internet safety, and let them know if spyware is a possibility. I agree but in some opinions i disagree with Coben and his prediction. If you put spyware on your computer, you have the ability to log every keystroke your child makes and thus a good portion of his or her private world. That’s what spyware is at least the parental monitoring kind. You don’t have to be an expert to put it on your computer.

In his article "Undercover Parent," Harlan Coben encourages and supports the concept of spyware being placed on teenagers' computers by their parents. With these programs parents can view every keystroke their child makes and examine what websites their children visit. While Coben’s viewpoints are bold, his argument still stands weakly with several invalid and questionable viewpoints.

In Harlan Coben’s article “The Undercover Parent,”(2008) he claims that parents should result to putting spyware on you tennager’s devices. Coben supports his claim by first stating “At first I was repelled at this invasion of privacy. Now, after doing an fair amount of research, I get it”, after a dinner he just had with friends who told Coben that they have put spyware on their teenager’s device, and how it kept him out of trouble. Coben’s purpose of this article is try to persuade parents that you should download spyware on your children’s devices yet, in order for Coben to get his purpose, he had to do some research and ask around for incidents that had occurred to his friends.. The audience is intended for parents of those who concern

Coben states that parents should put spyware on their kids computers, but shouldn’t be nosey and be completely responsible look for anything hazardous. However I disagree and believe teenagers should be trusted with online responsibilities. One reason for this is a third party (the vendor) makes a record of what you do ,but the author did not make note this or did not even know which in my opinion is worst than a faceless bureaucrat because that third is likely to release it to other parties such as google or other big corporations.

To begin with, parents spy on their kids so they could know what they bring doing during their days.In the article the author states that “61 percent of parents checked the websites that their teenagers visited, 60 percent visited their social media accounts and 48 percent looked through their phone calls and messages. Basically, what is this quote is saying is that parents are tracking their kids due to their websites that they go thru their cell phones who they being texting or calling and they social media such as facebook instagram. This is important because, it shows that parents are very careless for their child. So, if

Due to the technology available today children of all ages have access to the internet. In the 1960’s the internet became a major source of marketing, sales, and distribution of both products and services. Unfortunately many of these services were used by children under the age of 13 years old (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), 2011).

Internet safety has been an extensive issue for children and adolescents since accuse to the Internet has become readily available in homes. With Internet use increasing at such rapid rates and a large proportion of adolescents using the Internet daily, the awareness of Internet safety should be addressed. The term Internet safety can be defined as “the knowledge of maximizing an individuals safety to private information, and self protection from using the Internet”. The impact and influence that the Internet has on adolescent life is far-reaching and research findings by Norris (2007) indicate that one-quarter of the American youth that go online at home, do so in the privacy of their rooms. Additionally, with the recent trend of wireless connections there has been a profound expansion in private Internet usage. The diverse means by which adolescents are using the Internet has become coupled with inherent risks of unsupervised and uneducated use.

Is your privacy getting invaded by your parent? Technology gets better each and everyday, but how will it affect you? It has put a big effect on teens so their parents can know what is going on while their teens aren’t home. Parents have worked around problems to figure out many things such as where they are, who they called, and how fast they are driving. Depending if a teen is responsible or not tells how much freedom the teen can have. Privacy is important but parents also need to consider the teens perspective. In the article “Parental Monitoring Or An Invasion of Privacy”Robert Foltz discusses how parents are worried about everything their children are doing at all times. In the article “How Private Is Your Private Life?” the author Andrea Rock talks about her privacy is always close to being invaded. Privacy is not always taken the right way, teens can be tracked, what the teens think about their privacy may cause problems, and the actions they make results in what they are able to do.