Every night it’s the same routine. Laura Muse, a resident of Greensboro, North Carolina in the United States, confiscates the laptops of her teenagers Cohen, 15, and Kylie, 17, before they go to bed. The mother wants to make sure her children get a good night’s sleep rather than spending hours surfing social media. But the forties does not stop there. As she tells the New York Post, she also searches the smartphones of her offspring. A choice that she fully assumes: “I am the owner of their phones, I am the one who pays for them. I can search them when I want. People may think that it is a sign of disrespect or an invasion of their privacy, but that’s how I sail my ship.”
@museparty I feel the same when I read his comment section ♀️ #nobigdeal #raisingteens #cohenmusey #musecrew ♬ original sound – Hannah Bate
According to a study by Malwarebytes, a protection software, 54% of parents monitor their children. They track them via a GPS, read their emails and text messages, check their Internet browsing history as well as their publications on social networks, spy on their video games without forgetting their activity on Youtube. In Laura’s case, Cohen and Kylie have owned phones since they were 11 years old. At the time, the mom did surprise inspections once a week. Now that they’ve grown up, she trusts them more and only digs a few times a year. The 40-year-old simply wants to make sure that her teenagers, who are top athletes with a wide following on the net, have good behavior online and that they are safe.
Rummaging through kids’ phones isn’t necessarily a bad thing
Laura affirms, Cohen and Kylie have come to appreciate her oversight. It would have even strengthened their bonds: “If I find something that is problematic, we talk about it and we turn it into a teachable moment. I am not perfect, I do not expect my children to be perfect, but it’s important to keep an eye on them.” A decision that is not so bad if we believe Kelly Nedel, psychotherapist based in Manhattan: “My advice to parents is that they sit with their child, whether they know what is appropriate or not. to share over the phone and find ways to make both feel safe about using the phone Prioritizing the relationship between parent and child will allow the teen to make more informed decisions about the technology as it grows.”
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