How to Spy on Your Kids
by Jonathan Young
Working with teenage dads I get calls from parents wanting to know what their sons have been doing. Since the girlfriend is pregnant, you would think it wasn’t too tricky to tell.
If you want to know what your teenagers are doing there are several sneaky things that you can do to find out, and for God’s Sake don’t let them know how you did it!
And do not say you heard any of this from me. You might ruin the tiny bit of street cred that I’ve got left.
1. Bebo, Myspace, Facebook etc.
If you have a computer (and probably even if you don’t) then your kid has a profile on at least one of these social networking sites.
So what is it?
Basically, you (or your kid if you’re not cool enough) sets up a webpage all about themselves. It will usually include pictures, what school they go to, and how dumb the place they live is. You add your friends, and it’s kind of like a competition to see who can get the most friends and have the coolest page. Now… here comes the good bit:
Members can write ‘blogs’ which is kind of like a diary. Their friends can also write comments on their page. It’s kinda like text messaging, but is often done on the main page so that anyone looking at the page can read the messages. You can then click on links to your kid’s friend’s pages and see what your kid has said to them. More than one party has been destroyed this way!
If you’re lucky enough, when you go to one of these sites your child will have the computer set to automatically sign them in. If you’re not lucky enough, you can usually find their page by using the search function.
The addresses are www.myspace.com, www.bebo.com, www.facebook.com
2. Mobile Phones
If your teenager doesn’t have a mobile phone you should get them one immediately. Apart from making them look like a dork, you’re also depriving yourself of a valuable snooping tool. You’ll have to wait until your child is unconscious to get anywhere near their phone, but when you do you should write down their friends numbers, after reading the in and out box. Never let your child know that you can work a cellphone. If they think there’s a chance you can read their messages, they’ll delete them straight away.
Also, rather than giving your kid money to put on their phone you can connect it to your homeplan but at the same rates. This means that you can see who they call!
There’s also a bit on the phone where you can see what incoming calls were received.
3. Diaries
Yeah right! If anyone still has a diary, it’s certainly edited to combat the likes of you reading it.
4. Eftpos Cards
Eftpos cards are great, because you can trace through your bank account where they were with your money!
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