Wild Wild Web - Dr. Phil

Did you catch this episode yesterday? I have to weigh in on this one. The topic was about a mother who was monitoring her 17 year old daughter's Facebook and other social media accounts. Mom has the passwords and interacts with her daughter's friends by impersonating her daughter. If Mom sees an inappropriate photo she will notify the parent. If she sees the kids talking about teachers she will notify the principle. The question was is this too far? Well obviously yes!

But I have to tell you that I had all of my daughter's passwords and truth be told she didn't know a whole lot about the computer. I talked to a lot of her friends but never impersonated her. That's just weird! We would talk about things that I saw but I'm not sure I would notify a parent of what I saw. I think all parents should keep an eye on their own kids and what they are doing. We have all our computers in one room. I'm sure we will keep it that way.

What I will say is that I'm glad that I did have the passwords because there were 2 very big incidents. One particular situation she could have gotten into some VERY serious trouble from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. We had a lot to talk about and luckily it finally sank in. The other situation was pretty bad too! I won't go into it but I really do think it's ok to have the passwords. I only investigate when my gut told me to. I didn't make it my daily mission to catch her doing something wrong. I did my best and have no regrets about how I handled her social media access. Of course you have to be cautious but children need to be monitored. Here is what other mothers have to say about it.