Do parents really have a right to spy on their kids?

Adolescence is that complex stage of life when we move from seeing our parents as an absolute authority to an absolute hindrance in our development.

In the evolution of the process of promoting and supporting the physical, emotional, social and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood, very few things have generated as much change in the last decades as the progress of technology.

In a very few years, many parents have gone from seeing their children as fragile creatures in need of protection, to virtual rocket scientists capable of understanding and managing electronic devices better than themselves, as though being born into the digital age had somehow endowed them with computing knowhow. The sad truth is that our children are not geniuses: technology has simply become so simple to use that even we adults could understand it if we spent a little time and energy on the topic.

In this supposedly unequal battle between parents and teenagers, there are all kinds of scenarios, usually characterized by parents who try to use technology to control what their children do, and children who try to use technology to evade that control. Knowing you can communicate with your children at any time is a comfort. But for children, it is an attempt to control them, and one they will do their best to…