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Thursday, June 01, 2006

Espionage/counterespionage at home

We hear about monitoring software in the online-safety space, but we don't read much about it *in context* - with the countersurveillance being done by kids. The Washington Post takes a very anecdotal look at both sides of the story. Monitoring digital natives is not easy. They know stuff: like changing the text and background on a monitor to blue and black "making it harder … to read the screen from across the room"; setting IM preferences to "invisible" so parents can't tell they're online; turning GPS-enabled phones off; making MySpace profiles (and searchable personal info) partially fictitious; neglecting to mention home-school connection parts of school Web sites; etc. But parents, though digital immigrants, are learning the ropes, USATODAY reports, learning to check blogs and to IM them to come down to dinner. One mother of five told USATODAY that "communicating over a screen has helped her and her son step out of their customary roles" and see each other as people.

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