Parents Using Technology to Spy on Kids

The San Francisco Chronicle has an article today about parents using technology to spy on their kids.  Excerpt:

Paige White was surprised when her parents figured out soon after she started driving last year that she'd gone 9 miles to a party, not 4 miles to the friend's house she'd told them she was visiting. It seemed to her almost as if her car was bugged.

It was.

Paige's parents had installed a device in their daughter's SUV that can tell them not only how far she's driven, but how fast and whether she's made any sudden stops or hard turns.

"I was kind of mad because I felt it was an invasion of my privacy," said the Los Gatos resident, now 17.

Parents, some of whom feel outmatched by their offspring in this tech-savvy world, are using a growing number of gadgets, software and specially equipped cell phones to track kids' driving, read their instant messages and pinpoint where they're hanging out. [...]

"The bottom line is, surveillance will cut down somewhat on potential risk behavior kids will engage in, but it is at a cost," [psychologist Anthony] Wolf said. "To the extent that you do surveillance, you are potentially interfering with your kids developing responsibility for their own lives."

Link: Parents' gizmos high on tech, low on trust.

It goes on to mention products for child monitoring that include GPS-enabled cell phones, RFID-equipped clothing, and software to track internet use.