HW 7, Well-Being of Ones Child

I strongly believe that parents should monitor the online writing of their middle-school children. It may be stated that it is good to express yourself and that children should have that right just like anyone else, which I agree, children should be able to express themselves. The problem isn’t with the expressing of ones self; it is a matter of how and what they express, and the lack of understanding the boundaries to that expression. Pre-teens, teens and even young adults need, at varying levels, supervision in the way they interact with society. Without a guiding hand, or at least by the teens perspective a watchful eye, they may get carried away with what they write about. Emily Nussbaum writes about a girl whom fits this behavior of an un-guided teen.

“a student whose confessional postings had become something of a must-read the spring before. Over the course of a monthslong breakdown, she posted graphic descriptions of cutting herself, family fights, sex. It was all documented on her web log, complete with photos and real names”

This is a prime example of why teens should be monitored. This girl, due to stresses in her life, acted out and posted information about herself and family that should not have been shared with a whole student body. Not to say that she shouldn’t have talked about what was going on, but she used the wrong outlet. Instead of getting help by posting, she was encouraged to keep posting, thus encouraging her unsteady behavior. This was no longer a girl writing to friends, but a writer entertaining an audience.
How could this be healthy in anyone’s eyes? Because what this girl was writing about was not monitored, she became boundless in her writing, during a period in which she was emotionally distraught and not thinking clearly. Due to the fact that her parents did not monitor her, they were unaware of the state that their daughter was in. This to me is an undeniable reason for parents to monitor their children. By monitoring, I don’t mean to interfere with their freedom of expression, I only mean that a parent should keep an eye out for subjects and/or out pourings of truths that may be detrimental to the well-being of ones child.