Is it normal its illegal to read email but its ok to spy on your kids?

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23 Comments

If law says you cant read another persons mail or email why is it legal to put spyware on your child's computer. I mean isn't that against the law? My father did this to me, my sibling and my father when we still lived with him.

Than would accuse us all of nonexistent crimes based on some imaginary scenario he connected in his head. Like "You have a phone number with a different area code you must be talking to people from japan you met on the computer". With my mother this would be "this number does not have a name are you cheating on me? You are a whore".

Voting Results
32% Normal
Based on 25 votes (8 yes)
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Comments ( 23 )
  • (s)aint
    10 years ago | pl

    I don't understand why the others are defending your fathers actions here ...

    He is using this to spy on your mother as well and questions things that he finds. So what if you guys are talking to people outside of America?

    My parents have always said that they would NEVER snoop unless they suspected that I did drugs whilst I still lived at home. We have always had an open dialogue and I have been able to come to them with my problems and I have invited them in to whom I have been talking to and I have met people from the internet too.

    I think that parents that controls their kids like this are lacking some serious parenting skills and tries to have as much control as possible over you.

    I do NOT think that it's normal.

    If I get kids though, they aren't allowed to have a PC in their own room until they are old enough to deal with it wisely, far too many predators out there.

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    • Anonymous Post Author
      10 years ago

      They were never from another country. They were in the same town and same school. However they moved from other cities but just didn't feel like changing their phone number when they moved.

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      • Avant-Garde
        10 years ago

        Forgive me, OP. But the description definitely sounds like a situation of abuse. Not only that, but your father seemed very paranoid/threatened. His behavior reminds me of my mother's mother. While surveillance software was never used, when I got to a certain age, her mother would accuse me of everything under the sun. She accused me of looking up porn (I am assuming that she thought it was lesbian porn due to the fact that she kept trying to accuse me of being one.), sometimes she would do an extremely bad job of "inconspicuously" watching me use the internet and then whenever she was questioned, she make up some lame ass excuse. Before I got an iPhone, I had an LG Shine (What a shitty little phone!) and sometimes if I had left my phone unintended and I got a message, if she was in the vin city, she'd read it! If not that, she and sometimes my mother would demand that I read the message aloud and then want to see it. Such fuckery.

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        • Avant-Garde
          10 years ago

          I almost forgot: That frog at one point kept accusing me and my friends of sexting. Deep down, I bet she probably delighted at the idea of me taking and sending nude photos of my young body. O_O

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  • [Old Memory]
    10 years ago

    I suppose the legality of it comes from how parents are legally responsible for their offspring until those offspring are of a legal age to be responsible for themselves.

    Still, it would be lousy for a child who is struggling for autonomy from their parents to be monitored in such a way.

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    • thegypsysailor
      10 years ago

      I guess this poster just deletes posts that state opinions he doesn't like. Seems he takes after his father more than he'd like to admit.

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      • TheAnarchicalApairist
        10 years ago

        Mine was deleted.. ._.

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  • Avant-Garde
    10 years ago

    I think you should take this up the body of law in your area. As far as I'm concerned; surveillance, controlling, disrespecting civil rights, lack of boundaries (etc), is and should be considered a form of child abuse. All it is is abuse that is in the guise of something else. Parents are justifying this by claiming that it is something else. I grew up in a very abusive situation and similar methods were implemented against me.

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    • Anonymous Post Author
      10 years ago

      Thanks, I think this might be one of the best answers I have gotten on this post.

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      • Avant-Garde
        10 years ago

        No problem. :)

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  • funkedup
    10 years ago

    I wouldn't like it either, but depending on your age your Mother and Father may be legally responsible for you and in a lot of ways you have no "right" to privacy, especially when you live in their house (please do not take this as some suggestion to take off).

    In many countries even adults do not have a hard and fast "right" to privacy, just specific laws that say when and how personal information can be shared, and rights vis-a-vis arbitrary search and seizure. Similarly, it's normally an offense to open someone else's regular mail, but that's not strictly about privacy, it's also about the integrity of the mailing system (so you can send cheques and contracts etc via mail). I'm not aware of any laws that make it illegal to view someone else's email, messenger, FaceBook, Twitter, etc.

    And at any rate, the law would not interfere with a parent's historic right to snoop on their kids, even if they are assholes.

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  • CozmoWank
    10 years ago

    Look up the term "Legal Guardian".

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  • TheGodThatFailed
    10 years ago

    Because politicians are retards.

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  • youareaghost
    10 years ago

    because you are legally his property

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    • RoseIsabella
      10 years ago

      Not property, but responsibility.

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    • Anonymous Post Author
      10 years ago

      Im no ones property.

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      • youareaghost
        10 years ago

        legally, children don't really have rights.

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        • Avant-Garde
          10 years ago

          This really needs to be changed because, it allows for an easily abused loophole.

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        • funkedup
          10 years ago

          This is not true.

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  • Sog
    10 years ago

    Don't like your parents snooping?

    Get a job and move out. Or at least buy your own computer so you can lock it and they can't install software on it. And pay for your own internet too.

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    • Avant-Garde
      10 years ago

      If the child is still a minor, it would be very difficult for them to move out and live on their own. A child who is kicked out while still a minor, both parties might experience legal issues if a law abiding body like, CPS, ever found out. If the child is in an abusive situation, it might be very unlikely for their current family to place them in the care of another relative, much less the care of someone who shares no relation to the child. Chances are that their family wouldn't want others to know that abuse is taking place.

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    • Anonymous Post Author
      10 years ago

      Well you are all clearly missing the point of this post. READ THE ACTUAL QUESTION AND ANSWER THAT! NOT PUSHING WHATEVER BULLSHIT YOU WANT ABOUT HOW CHILDREN ARE BAD.(If law says its illegal to read a persons email why is it legal to read a child email?) Also none of us are with my father anymore if you bothered to read you halfwit.

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  • hi9580
    10 years ago

    Parents rarely have a deep understanding of technology so it's normal

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