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Critical summary of the undercover parent
Critical summary of the undercover parent
Critical summary of the undercover parent
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Undercover Parent Spyware, should you use it? Many people don’t agree with the idea of spyware.They think it interferes with their child’s privacy, which is understandable. I believe Spyware is something that people should use. In an article titled, “The Undercover Parent”, by Harlan Coben he states that he also agrees with Spyware. One example of this is when he states, “we all know about the young boy unknowingly conversing with a pedophile.” This really stuck to me because it states unknowingly. The kid didn’t know what he was doing. This is an example of why kids need Spyware. Another example that comes from the article is, “with new technology comes new responsibility.” I like this because of how true it is. Just like going
Internet is advancing every day, parents have no idea what their kids are doing in cyberspace and are contemplating the idea of spyware. In the article, “The Undercover Parent” by Harlan Coben, he argues the idea of parents putting spyware on kids’ computer is a good idea to keep the child safe. Many American parents have no idea what happens in cyberspace; sex, bullying, and drugs. Parents are torn between protecting their child with spyware and allowing the child to have privacy. Coben uses his friends’ personal experiences to support his argument without leaving room for counterarguments. By using strong emotional appeals, weak qualifiers, and sugary word choice Coben creates a weak argument that lacks persuasion.
“Do you wish you’d grown up with your mom tracking your every move? If not don’t do it to your own kid.” states Lenore Skenazy in her persuasive article Tracking Kids like Felons. These words draw an immediate comparison to “the golden rule” or “treat others how you want to be treated.” In this article Skenazy evaluates a personal-tracking app called FamilySignal. As the readers we see the author’s take on this specific point in the very first sentence when she uses sarcasm on the word “safe.” Skenazy does not give too many facts but she does base most of her article off of morals, which may even be more persuasive. Even in today’s day and age tracking ones every step is definitely not ok, even with the advanced technology that we have.
A news article called The Undercover Parent by Harlan Coben published in March 16, 2008 as a persuasive editorial where Coben argues how parents using spyware to spy on their kid’s internet history and how sometimes it might go too far. The author starts developing his argument by giving an anecdote of how one of his friends put spyware on their kid’s computer, and later on during the article Coben claims how parents can check up on their kids to see if they’re being cyber bullied or doing something inappropriate but shouldn’t cross the line of looking at their social status. Coben persuades other parents to get spyware to monitor their child’s behavior on the internet in order to make sure their parent know what
“Maybe it’s the word: spyware. It brings up associations of Dick Cheney sitting in a dark room, rubbing his hands together and reading your most private thoughts”. In the article “The Undercover Parent”, writer and father, Harlan Coben argues that parents spying on teens is a good precaution to take. Coben was very indecisive on whether spyware was a good concept to use to find out things about your teen, though, in the end, he concluded that it was a good solution, but conditions had to be enforced. Coben illustrates the point that the internet is a dangerous place, not everything on the internet is private, and it's a parental responsibility to know what your child is doing. For the most part, I agree with Coben, but I still do disagree with
Some parents care about their children but don’t care about the drama going on at school or who their best friend likes. I can see how parents think it’s an invasion of privacy and some feel like if the child found out about the software they wouldn’t trust their parents because who knows what else they could be hiding. So as a parent I could see why they wouldn’t want to put spyware on their teen’s computer because they are invading in the privacy of their kid.
I agree with Coben's argument. I agree because Coben does a good job of explaining his claim. His claim was that monitoring your child's use of the internet is a good thing to do. He has three reasons that stood out to me more than the rest. Those reasons are: monitoring your child on the internet is just another way you should watch your child, it is for the safety of your kids, and it is for the safety of their future.
In the modern world, technology makes everything easier. They make finding information easy to meeting new people. This is great for those wanting new adventures, but unfortunate to those who come across false information. Teens are most susceptible to such information, and adults are trying to combat this. Parents, have gone from asking their children, to instead monitoring or “spying” on their children. In the article, “the undercover parent”, by harlan coben, coben states how parents must monitor their children in order for them to have a healthy childhood. I disagree with his statements as it is only an invasion of privacy. It can also be a sign of bad parenting and can show an unhealthy relationship between parent and child. Not to mention
...al advancement. He supported his claim of cause with supportive claims of fact and value, appealing to ethos. Both Carr and Cascio provided valid points through an appeal of logos to explain how technology affects our society and continues to change the world around us. They both had very convincing arguments. However, Carr’s article proved to be more effective because he provided the emotional approach and more supportive evidence, logical reasoning, and a skeptical ideal to relate to his readers.
I agree with Coben when he says that he is okay with the monitoring of your teenagers use of the internet. I especially agreed when he said “Trust is one thing, but surrendering parental responsibility to a machine that allows the entire world access to your home borders on negligence.” It’s true you can’t just let your teen roam on the internet with no boundaries. The internet is a dangerous place and your child would not go through life unharmed by it if you let them handle it them it alone. Teenagers make mistakes and it’s parents’ jobs to fix them, prevent them, or teach them the correct ways. If you don’t monitor your teenager with spyware they will make a mistake and get hurt. Coben is only trying to persuade parents to do the right thing in the article so why don’t more people listen.
In this world a person never knows what is good and bad for him/her and the others. In my opinion digital monitoring is very beneficial and even more in this society that kidnapping is happening a lot. In two articles, “Should You Spy on your kids?” by Nick Wingfield and “Spy-Master Parents Might Uncover Trust Problems” by John Keilman explain some pros and cons about digital monitoring. According on what I have learned and my personal experiences I think that digital monitoring is beneficial because you can demonstrate trust, good feeling, and protect the teenagers.
Spyware had been titled the largest threat to the internet since spam. The scary thing is, unlike spam, spyware is not always visible to detect and able to be recognized. "Spyware appears to be a new and rapidly growing practice that poses a risk of serious harm to consumers," (qtd. by FTC, 2004 in Sipior). A study showed that in 91 percent of personal computers are infected (Sipior). That percentage has done nothing but increased in the two year time period since 2003. In 2004 EarthLink audited 3.2 million personal computers and found 83.4 million traces of adware cookies (Sipior). Just imagine how many are circulating in every computer audited without the user knowing what is going on with their computer.
Citing the dangers of pedophiles, porn, cyberbullying, Coben asserts that using spyware is a justified parenting practice. He draws attention to the parental inconsistency of overprotecting their children in the physical world, then sending them unprotected into the dangers of the web (Coban, 2008). While Coban recognizes that this can seem like an invasion of privacy, he makes the differentiation between the false anonymity the internet provides, and a locked journal kept under a mattress (2008). He maintains that it is not a matter of trust, implies that parents who do not spy on their children’s internet use are negligent.
Technology can be your best friend but also your biggest enemy. It can be used for pleasure or as a helpful tool to get schoolwork done. However, many youths are not aware of the dangers they may face by browsing through the Internet.
...a tools and if there is no teachers to teach learners the ethics of the connecting to the internet and other media tools, who will help protect them from the cruel life outside. These crimes covers a variety range of activities which includes cyber-stalking, phishing and pharming, spam, drug trafficking, cyber-hiking(some believe that disappearance of the Malaysian Air flight 320 might have been hacked) and much more.
Parents should pay more attention to the behavior on the internet of their youngster and make some restriction if possible before they are getting into trouble. Similar to law and punishment, parental control should not be too strict or too loose. “Parents of many young hackers have no idea what their children are doing. (Baase, 248)” Leave young hackers out wild without control could lead them to the wrong path and becoming a criminal. Young hackers are becoming the target of the crime syndicates because their skill could be used for criminal activities such as online fraud, theft, scams, and etc. “Some criminal gangs are paying students while they study to ensure they have a pool of tech-savvy workers to call on, says the report from McAfee. (Criminals 'target tech students ')” There is a possibility that students could fall for such scheme, since some of them have financial difficulties, and those crime organizations might take advantage of it. “Sometimes those hooked in this way end up being blackmailed into doing even more work because the criminal running them has good evidence of what that young hacker has been up to. (Criminals 'target tech students ')” Obviously, there are some people who fall into the entrapment of those criminal organization, and difficulty to live a normal life. Some young people are naive and inexperienced, so even a little praising could be enough to make some them do crazy thing. “Some organised crime gangs were trading on the glamour surrounding the "hacker" label to help them recruit impressionable youngsters, revealed the report. (Criminals 'target tech students ')“ It is the parental responsibility to keep an eye on what their children are doing on the computer, and make them aware of the risk of the unsafe behavior in