Harlan Coben The Undercover Parent

In "The Undercover Parent" (2008), an op-ed article, Harlan Coben explains that the internet is a dangerous place and he states his opinion that spyware should not be used to protect children. Schools, including Glendale Unified school District can install spyware at students’ homes. With spyware, it is possible to view a complete history of one’s computer activity. Although spyware can keep kids safe, I side with Coben that spyware is going way too far to the point where it invades a child's privacy. Spyware is a radical way of monitoring the Internet activity of children, and it invades their privacy. While parents do have the right and the responsibility to be protective of their children, when it comes to spyware, the rights of parents

Spyware can help parents find what children are secretly doing on the computer that could potentially harm the child. One of Coben's friends, "...using spyware to monitor his college-bound, straight-A daughter, found out that not only she was using drugs but she was sleeping with her dealer" (Coben 1). In this scenario, spyware was the only way that the father found out about his daughters actions. Some parents may feel that checking their child's internet history is enough monitoring. This is not a solution because there are ways to evade this method. Furthermore, children can be very sneaky and find ways around other, less radical ways of monitoring, so in cases such as these, spyware is best. A child can simply browse in private mode, which stops the browser from logging visited internet pages or by deleting part of their history. Another popular method to monitoring children is by having parent-child talks. This does not work because children, unfortunately, are gifted liars. Children are not diabolic people; they simply are ignorant about what is out in the world, and they just happen to be very curious and would like to stay quiet about their actions. A plethora of issues