How Can I Monitor my Child’s Text Messages Without Them Knowing

We live in a world of increased digital development and use its benefits. Tech is our daily navigator to coordinate our 24/7 activities and monitor our kids’ online behavior. 

Kids spend many hours on their smartphones, which seems to be a problem for every parent. 

The purpose of messaging in the past was to provide quick and precise information to others. But nowadays, kids have turned messaging into gossiping for hours. This behavior has challenged parents to monitor and control their kids’ chats to protect them from dangers.

So the question is, how can a parent truly monitor their children’s online activity?

Well, manually checking is always an option, but tech has thankfully offered us parental control apps, that let us remotely monitor our children’s Internet presence.

How Can You Read a Child’s Text Messages

Being a stalker can unintentionally harm our little ones’ hearts. But sometimes circumstances demand that, and we do what we must do.

A harder way to read your children’s texts is by manually opening their inboxes and checking. 

But it’s easier to use parental control apps. I mean, we can’t activate our inner James Bond with these apps but they are much easier and more effective

Potential Dangers of Texting for our Kids

The Internet is the best place where one can meet different personalities and cultures. Some online friends can help our sweeties grow and socialize, but most people on the net are rude and inappropriate. 

Inappropriate Texting (Sexting)

Kids can receive and be exposed to inappropriate content that affects them later on. But children also often engage in this type of chatting, although we don’t let them. 

Studies show that about 15% of children have been sent these types of inappropriate messages. If I’m being honest, and you’d probably agree, witnessing your child doing this might just be the most embarrassing thing

Cyberbullies, Discrimination, and Online Predators

Our kids can receive harmful, humiliating, threatening, and embarrassing messages from net individuals or groups and get upset, nervous, and even develop mental health problems.

These individuals threaten our kids’ safety by seducing them on the net to get inappropriate private pictures for their disgusting needs. 

Almost 20% of children have been reached by an online predator! Parents must be well aware of these ‘creatures’ when letting their children go online.

Violence, Aggression, and Nudity

Texts like these always stimulate children to be part of that community and show their power by hurting others. Of course, who wants this to happen with their kids?

Knowing that these unusual behaviors are present on the net and harm our kids’ health (physically and mentally), we parents must take preventive measures and protect our little ones. 

Monitoring our kids’ online texting can provide us with a chance to prevent harm before it even happens.

So, if your children’s safety means the world to you, it’s definitely OK to borderline maniacally (maybe that’s too far) stalk your children’s texts with online users.

Is it Legal for Parents to Monitor their Children’s Text Messages

It better be! And luckily it is because our children are minors, they don’t have that much privacy in the eyes of the law.

Kids are the most innocent and pure human beings. They don’t understand the cruelty of the world they live in and can easily become victims of unpleasant encounters. So it is both ethically and legally justified to monitor your children’s text messages.

What is COPPA?

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is a legal law for protecting the privacy of kids that are under the age of 13. 

It states specific rules for websites that collect and use the private information of young users and instructions on what to include in the privacy policy.

So, don’t worry. Your children’s safety is legally guaranteed and any inappropriate encounter can be solved by involving the authorities.

Text Monitoring Apps

Simple research (I’m forever grateful for search engines) has shown that there are different monitoring programs, that can help parents to provide safety for their kids, such as:

• Spyic;
• Spyera;
• FlexiSpy;
• Google Family Link;
• mSpy;

Now parents might ask themselves if using these apps is morally OK. I know it seems like you’re reading your children’s diary, but the Internet world is way more dangerous than a diary.

You don’t need to look at what your children write with their friends or family, but keeping an eye on their chats with strangers is absolutely acceptable

How to Install Monitoring Software and Optimize the Performance

Turn on your device and make sure you are connected to WiFi. Choose the wanted software, download it, and log in.

Every app offers specific instructions on how to use it. The good thing is that every app also provides the option to hide itself from your children. That’s useful if you want to be stealthy like a ninja!

You can optimize the app by handpicking the features you want to focus on. Every app is stronger in one field than the others, so it’s important to know what you’re looking for. Don’t just waste money on apps that won’t even help you!

Communication and trust are also a must. We can’t just grab our kids’ phones and scroll to read the received and sent messages, it is rude and offensive. 

We must show our love and affection with a calm and polite voice because they are our little ones, our treasures.

Conclusion

I always think of my kids as they’re equal to me. I respect their feelings and needs and I expect feedback. Sometimes we debate for hours and hours and hours. 

It is never boring to watch your sweeties fighting to protect their opinion even though they’re wrong.

Combining parental control software with our trust, love, devotion, presence, and communication is the best parental method, that provides happy, self-confident, healthy, and safe kids.

FAQ

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