A common ethical dilemma is whether parents should monitor their children's gadgets and social media activities. In this era of social media, young people have become more in touch with online content than the outside world. Social media has its advantages and disadvantage; depending on how it is used, it can make or break an individual's character, especially character built in the early stages of one's life. Parents find it difficult to decide whether they should monitor and regulate their kids' social media interactions and activities. Parents want their children to interact on social media and only reap valuable content such as EBooks. At the same time, this platform has many controversial sites that can break a child's character, such as pornographic WebPages. There are two solutions to this dilemma; the parents can choose to monitor their children's social media activities or not.
The parents can choose to monitor their children's gadgets and social media interactions by taking charge of their privacy settings and passwords, talking to them about social media's dangers or setting rules and regulations such as specific screen schedules. This decision can have immediate and long term implications. One of the immediate implications of obtaining a child's social media content is that the parent will filter out harmful and inappropriate material in the child's devices. The parent will also have access to their passwords, enabling them to back up important data such as educative files. Another immediate effect of this decision is that the parent will be able to establish and control the child's cyber etiquette.
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A long-term implication of this decision is that the parents will control the children's social media interaction by regulating their search engines. The children will only access the websites allowed by the parents. Another long term effect is that the parents will protect the children from cyberbullying, which can cause a dangerous effect on the child's self-esteem. However, this decision can affect the parent's relationship with their children. The child can feel a sense of betrayal as a result of their parent's snooping, and they will feel unhappy with the parent's doubt of their loyalty. Another long term effect of this decision is that it can derail the children's intelligence as social media has a lot of positive content. This decision also requires costly interventions and can affect the parents' finances.
The second decision is to give the children the freedom to operate their own social media accounts and be free in their undertakings. This decision has more long-term effects than short-term effects. A short term effect is that this will expose the children to the bad side of social media and might influence bad behavior. Another short term effect would be the parent's lack of control in their children's screen time.
One long term effect of giving children social media freedom is that this will give them a sense of belonging through interactions with social media friends, thus diversifying their thinking and enabling them to establish beneficial social networks. Another effect is that it will enhance the relationship between parents and their children and promote the virtue of trust. Social media freedom also gives children access to support materials such as educational content and healthcare information. Another long-term effect of this decision is that children will become more expressive, thus boosting their self-esteem and increasing their intelligence level.
Parents should trust their children and give them social media freedom. As analyzed, this decision has more advantages than disadvantages compared to controlling the children's social media access. It seems to be the most valid ethical action because it has beneficial long-term outcomes. It will also build the parents' relationship with their children and help them understand that the children cannot be controlled forever.
