I consider myself a 1st generation internet child. Back when I was growing up on the internet, we didn't have myspace, we had IRC chat rooms, which were far more "wild west" in terms of supervision and allowances, side by side supervision didn't achieve much, I just wouldn't go to sites I wasn't certain my dad would approve of while he was around, and when he wasn't around, I might go dig up some noodie pictures of pamela anderson cuz I mean, she was all the rage in the baywatch era. "protect the children" says the government and the conservative types, me? I just wanted to see some naked women.
My communication usually was limited to finding teen oriented chat rooms, but to be quite honest, most of that interaction was questionable, you never knew who you were talking to, pictures on the internet were rarer, digital cameras were expensive and new, scanners were also expensive and clunky to use.
Myspace is a little different, it tries to protect people below a certain age now with restricting profile viewing to friends only.
That said, I'm glad my parents treated me like a young adult, instead of like a "kid" that required checking up on, I guess it depends on what kind of relationship you have with your kid
You can try to justify it as just "checking up on them" but it is an invasion of privacy on a moral level. Parents get an overly complex sense of ownership and entitlement to their children and honestly, it's the parents role to provide adequate care for children, and to equip them with the means necessary to become an adult.
What kind of moral value do you impart by acting distrustful, or insecure in the effectiveness of raising your child to the point that you need to invade their privacy to sleep well at night? fast forward 10 years when your child is a full grown adult, growing up with a distrustful parent is almost just like being told that you're untrustworthy, that you're a liar, that you're not worthy of the basic respect of privacy. Had my parents treated me like that, I doubt I'd have anything to do with them.
up to 15 is ok, by then they should be emotionally ready to deal with their vices and temptations on the virtues you imparted upon them during the more formulate times of their life.
hrm, heres a fun read too *shrug*
4.07: The Rights of Kids in the Digital Age