Is it OK to Snoop on Your Child?

My friend and colleague, Robert Siciliano is an expert on Personal Security and is often called upon by the media to share his insights regarding Identity Theft and Credit Card fraud. But I just received an email from Robert announcing that tomorrow 2/2/09 he’ll be on the Tyra Banks Show to teach Moms how to successfully snoop on their teen daughters! Below is Robert’s announcement and I‘ll weigh in my comments after watching the show. I’ve highlighted the text that resonates with me and my gut reaction is that if you get to the point that you need to snoop, then you haven’t spent enough time developing your own inner trust muscles. As within, so it is without. In other words, what ever you’re seeing outside of yourself is a direct reflection of what is going on inside of you. “Monday 2/2 the Tyra Banks show “Mom Police” Featuring Robert Siciliano features moms who go to extremes to spy on their kids! These snoopy moms admit to reading their girls’ diaries and going through their cell phones and personal things. Plus, one mom wants to know where her child is at all times — and secretly plants a tracking device on her!Like all daytime talk, its a tad sensational, and done well. What parent hasn’t snooped on their child at some point? I know my parents did, for good reason!! Some moms simply search draws and closets, others interrogate and pat down. And with advances in snooping technology, many parents are installing computer monitoring software, tracking kids on GPS cell phones and others are monitoring their child’s text messages either remotely or right on the phone bill. Snooping is done to protect the child from themselves, from others, and to give the parent peace of mind. My role is to demonstrate various snooping technologies. I walk a mom through a few tools to monitor her somewhat out of control 15 year old daughter. There may be a lack of trust, paranoia, fear, or good reason to snoop on your kids. Sometimes parents who fear, use love as an excuse to snoop. Either way, there seems to be a breach of trust between parent and child when snooping occurs (or when the child finds out). My children are young, so I have no need to snoop. Will I? Neither you or my child will ever know. 😉 ~ Unless of course my child snoops on me and I end up on Tyra. If you are a parent and have time to Tivo or watch live, I think you find this to be entertaining and educational as well.” Keep Out!