Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Thursday 28 June 2018

Do you really know what your kid’s doing on that smartphone?

By MARTHA IRVINE texts.
AP National Writer “It’s a full-time job,” Bivens
CHICAGO (AP) — Ayrial concedes. “People laugh
Miller is clearly annoyed. at me because I monitor
Her mother is sitting with her stuff. But I don’t have
her on the couch in their the same problems as oth-
Chicago apartment, scroll- er people do.”
ing through the teen’s con- A 2016 Pew Research Cen-
tacts on social media. ter survey found that only
“Who’s this?” asks Jennea about half of parents said
Bivens, aka Mom. they had ever checked
It’s a friend of a friend, Ayri- their children’s phone calls
al says. They haven’t talked and text messages or even
in a while. friended their kids on social
“Delete it,” her mom says. media.
The 13-year-old’s eyes nar- Tech experts agree that
row to a surly squint. “I hate monitoring makes sense
this! I hate this! I hate this!” for younger kids. But Pam
she shouts. Wisniewski, a computer-
Yes, Bivens is one of “those science professor at the
moms,” she says. She University of Central Florida,
makes no apology. suggests a gradual loosen-
Nor should she, says a re- ing of the strings as teens
tired cybercrimes detec- prove they can be trusted.
tive who spoke to her and “I’m almost to the point
other parents in early June where I feel like the world
at Nathan Hale Elementary would be better off with-
School, a K-8 public school out social media,” says Wis-
in Chicago. niewski, who studies human
“There is no such thing as computer interaction and
privacy for children,” Rich adolescent online safety.
Wistocki told them. “But I’m also a pragmatist.”
Other tech experts might Wistocki tells parents to of-
disagree. But even they fer their children the “Gold-
worry about the secret en Ticket” — no punishment
digital lives many teens are when they come to them
leading, and the dreadful about mistakes they’ve
array of consequences — made online or help they
including harassment and need with a social media
occasional suicides — that problem.
can result. Ayrial’s mom is all for that.
Today’s kids are meeting Recently, Ayrial started a
strangers, some of them live videostream on Twit-
adults, on a variety of apps. Ayrial Miller, 13, takes a quick moment to check her phone at Nathan Hale Elementary School ter and encountered a
Teens are storing risqué in Chicago on Friday, June 8, 2018, to show how the monitoring software her mom has installed stranger who asked her to
photos in disguised vault on the phone works. “It’s annoying,” Ayrial says, though she adds that she knows her mom cares show her bare feet. It was a
apps, and then trading about her. “creepy” request, the teen
those photos like baseball Associated Press said, that caused her to
cards. It’s difficult to say how wide-eyed parents that after police discovered end the connection quick-
Some even have spare many kids are pushing digi- giving a kid this “ominous that he’d recorded him- ly.
“burner” phones to avoid tal boundaries this way. But device” is like handing over self having sex with a class- She had sidestepped a
parental monitoring, or academics, experts like the keys to a new Mercedes mate and then shared the block on social media by
share passwords with Wistocki and Coffey, and and saying, “Sweetheart recording with his hockey using a tablet. But she did
friends who can post on many teens themselves say you can go to Vegas. You teammates. While search- tell Mom what happened
their accounts when privi- it’s surprisingly common for can drive to Texas, Florida, ing his phone, they also soon after.
leges are taken away. kids to live online lives that New York, wherever you found photos of other par- Ayrial still isn’t happy that
David Coffey, a dad and are all but invisible to most want to go.” tially nude girls in a secret her mom is going through
tech expert from Cadil- parents. Such journeys can lead to photo vault app disguised her contacts with her. The
lac, Michigan, said he was Exposed to tablets and ugly incidents, sometimes as a calculator. soon-to-be eighth-grad-
floored when his two teens smartphones at an increas- involving surprisingly young And yet, Wistocki says, too er appreciates that “she
told him about some of the ingly early age, kids are participants. often parents remain in cares about me,” but
sneaky things their peers correspondingly savvier In January, two 12-year- denial with what he calls hopes Mom will eventually
are doing, even in their about using them and eas- olds were arrested in Pana- “NMK — not my kid.” “back up” a bit.
small rural town. ily share tips with friends. ma City Beach, Florida, for Bivens, Ayrial’s mom uses an “When I’m in high school,
“I gotta hand it to their cre- Parents, by contrast, are cyberstalking that police app called MMGuardian, that might get embarrass-
ativity, but it’s only enabled both overwhelmed and of- said led to the suicide of one of several available, ing sometimes, you know?”
through technology,” says ten naive about what kids a classmate named Ga- to manage and monitor she says. “You need to
Coffey, chief digital officer can do with sophisticated briella Green, who’d been her 13-year-old daughter’s learn your own — how do I
at IDShield, a company devices. repeatedly bullied. phone use. She turns off put this? — discipline. . You
that helps customers fend Wistocki often holds up a Last year in Naperville, a certain apps, sometimes as need to learn from your
off identity theft. mobile phone and tells 16-year-old killed himself punishment, and monitors own mistakes.”q