Childhood in the Internet age is difficult. There are a zillions of things to discover on the Web and therefore it’s really easy to waste time online. While this development is nothing new and children have always done things which were generally considered useless by grown-ups (playing with computers, inspecting – i.e. destroying – a model train etc.), modern technologies like cell phones and the Internet itself have opened the door to another dimension. And this dimension is surveillance. These days, kids have their cell phones always on them and worried parents can call at any time to check if “everything is alright”. Which is perfectly fine – every caring parent wants to make sure that their kids are ok. However, if used excessively, this is the first step towards 24/7 parental control.
One might argue that as kids grow older, parents’ calls become fewer and kids become more independent from their parents as they reach adulthood. But, and that’s the point I’d like to make, as kids grow older they spend more time on the Internet; with social platforms like facebook (which recently exceeded google in terms of daily page views) being the most attractive platforms for young people.
A lot has already been written about facebook’s privacy policy and about the data that is being voluntarily made available on these platforms by the users. However, little attention had been paid to the fact that also parents can join such networks. So, what prevents overly caring parents from spying on their kids on facebook? Nothing. And what prevents kids from giving away all information about themselves? Nothing. After all, it has become good practice to be “yourself” in this kind of networks. So today it’s really simple for parents to know what is going on with their children: just become a member of a social network and become a friend of the kids. Which kid can say “no” to a parental friendship invitation? Probably no one.
So, what lesson can be learned from this? A very simple one: before uploading something about one’s personal life (party pictures with lots of half naked girls/boys 
), you should ask yourself a simple question: Should my parents know about this? After all, the “should mom know” test is definitively the best privacy filter .
Your ikangai team
[UPDATE] – Yes, the ikangai team members also have facebook accounts. And no, their parents don’t. Maybe they change their mind, after reading this post .[/UPDATE]
