Internet privacy
Many people believe that parents should monitor their children’s Internet activity. However, I believe that liberty and privacy are more important than any safety concerns that parents might have. By tracking what their kids to online, parents are making a bad decision and violating their children’s rights.
Privacy is a fundamental right for all people. I define privacy as having the ability to prevent others from watching, monitoring, or knowing about what you are doing. I believe that everyone needs to have some things in their life that no one else knows about. If everything that you do and think is tracked, recorded, and monitored by others, then it’s hard to have a sense of self and be a unique person. Secrets are a good thing because without them there is no freedom.
This is why I am so opposed to security cameras, body scanners at airports, laws that require people to get a doctor’s permission to do things, and search engines’ practice of tracking everything people do online. It is also why I am opposed to parents who monitor their children’s Internet activity.
The Internet is one of the greatest inventions in history because of the privacy that it allows. The beauty of the Internet is that, unlike with a library or bookstore, you don’t have to interact with anyone. You can read about whatever you want without regard for what others will think. I discovered the Internet when I was about 10. At the time I was very interested in World War II, and I was thrilled to discover that I could read about history on the Internet without having to worry about people thinking I was uncool or weird. I have been lucky enough to have parents who (for the most part) never monitored or made rules about my Internet activity.
Parents have no right to know about what their children do on the computer. One of the worst things a parent can do is to monitor, watch, and ask about what their child does online. Yes, some kids make dangerous decisions, but most do not, and it is wrong to punish all for the actions of a few. If your child wants to talk about a website with you, fine, but if not, you have no right to ask what site they are looking at, who they are talking to, or what they are buying. This is not just annoying, it is a violation of the most fundamental right that exists: privacy. The fact that a child attempts to hide their Internet activity from a parent is not an indication of wrongdoing, and computers should not be located in a public place such as the kitchen, where people can easily observe others’ Internet use.
Privacy is the main reason why computers and the Internet are useful. By monitoring their Internet activity, parents deprive their children not only of the fundamental right to privacy, but also of the opportunity to become a unique individual.