Monitoring apps: What parents need to consider

Punishment is a must!" says Mariya Lachat from Basel. Her twelve-year-old son got his smartphone on one condition: that he can be reached by her. But when she calls him, he often doesn't answer. «He then says he didn't hear it,» says Lachat. She is now testing the «Ignore no more» app. If her son doesn't call back, she locks his smartphone remotely. Only two numbers work on the locked device: the one for the emergency call and the one for the parents. To change this, a code is required that the children can only get from their parents.
Parents don't need to be IT experts to keep an eye on their children's media use. There are numerous inexpensive apps for iOS (Apple) and Android: With the «Dinner Time App», the smartphone can be deactivated for a certain period of time, for example during school hours or for dinner together. The «Pocket Nanny» informs parents when children leave a predefined area. Complete monitoring is possible with «Canary Teen Safety» or «My Mobile Watchdog»: call lists, text messages or apps used - pretty much any activity on the smartphone can be monitored.
Parents can also use GPS to see their child's location on their smartphone at any time, limit the time spent surfing the internet or restrict the use of apps. All of these options are theoretically available to many parents in Switzerland, where 97% of young mobile phone owners use a smartphone according to a recent James study. The technical prerequisites for monitoring are therefore in place.
An app as a modern parenting aid? «Educational methods that enforce desired behaviour with drastic punishments work neither online nor offline,» says Philippe Wampfler. As a teacher, cultural scientist, blogger and expert on learning with new media, he is often asked when he considers monitoring apps to be useful. For Wampfler, it is important that parents tell their children clearly how and why they are using these apps: «But they do not replace trust in the child's ability.»

A monitoring app is an invasion of children's privacy.

Trust or control?

The new media are revitalising a classic area of tension in parenting: trust versus control. Where does parental (care) end and where does monitoring begin? «In principle, parents have a duty of supervision,» says Sabine Widmann Bernauer, President of the Swiss Association of Parents' Organisations.
For Widmann Bernauer, it is questionable whether tracking apps are a suitable means of fulfilling parental duties: «The problem for society as a whole is that we are growing up in an environment where everyone - including adults - is constantly reachable and trackable via mobile devices.»
School social worker Daniela Dietrich, who is responsible for primary school, kindergarten and upper school at the Unteres Fricktal district school in Kaiseraugst, understands that parents' fear of the influence of the media on their children has grown. For Dietrich, however, monitoring has the consequence that the child gets the feeling that the parents don't trust them and don't have confidence in them. «Asking children and letting them tell you where they have been» - for the school social worker, this is normal caution. However, the line to surveillance is crossed when parents always have to be certain. «Adolescence is also about making mistakes and learning from them. Let's be honest: parents don't need to know everything,» says Dietrich.

Incidentally, the fact that it is technically possible does not mean that surveillance is also legally permissible. There is currently no clear legal regulation on this in Switzerland. However, Article 16 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child stipulates the right to protection of a child's privacy. Parents are not allowed to simply search a child's belongings, read letters and listen to telephone conversations without their permission. But this is exactly what complete surveillance apps make possible. A general need for security on the part of parents is not sufficient from a data protection perspective to permanently monitor a child, the Federal Data Protection Commissioner Hanspeter Thür recently told the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper.

If surveillance, then open and mutual

Thomas Merz does not recommend monitoring apps either. The media educator is a professor at the Thurgau University of Teacher Education. However, he knows families where it is a matter of course that everyone can see each other's location. This is possible with «Familonet», for example. «I think it's important that this is mutual,» says Merz. «And that anyone can revoke this agreement without it being seen as a vote of no confidence.»
Tony Anscombe, safety expert at security software company AVG and speaker at the Child Internet Safety Conference in London, also favours open communication and reciprocity. «We teach our children to cross the road or swim safely,» compares Anscombe, «online safety is an extension of this basic safety information.»

Parents must explain to their children how and why they use monitoring apps.

Instead of monitoring children with apps, he advises setting up a Google Alert and allowing children to do the same with their parents. Parents and children will then always receive an email if something is published on the internet with their name. «This ensures that you know what is posted about you on the internet and you also have the opportunity to change this information,» says Anscombe.
A teacher from Basel, who wishes to remain anonymous, is against virtual surveillance. The mother of a 13-year-old and a 14-year-old says that she monitors her children, but in a transparent way: in the presence of the children, she checks their smartphones to see which websites they have visited or which photos they have taken. «A monitoring app is an invasion of the children's privacy,» she says. «Sometimes I'd like to - but that doesn't promote trust.»

Decision guide for monitoring apps

Media educator Thomas Merz considers apps to be useful if they give children more freedom than without them. He also considers them useful for children with specific needs such as epileptics or in special situations, but only if they are integrated into a care concept, preferably in consultation with specialists.
Media educator Philippe Wampfler believes it is important that parents tell their children how and why they want to use the apps. It can be legitimate for parents to ensure safety with such an app from a distance.