How to appropriately interact in an online environment

Increasing numbers of parents are claiming digital technologies that monitor online activities are the best way to protect their children from offensive content. A number of companies, such as mSpy and Qustodio, have developed online monitoring apps.

Other parents claim it is not necessary to monitor their children’s online behaviour, preferring to encourage their children to develop the knowledge and skills to make appropriate choices.

Parents can consider two different interventions to ensure their children use the online environment appropriately:

1. Monitor their children’s online behaviour using apps
2. Encourage their children to develop the knowledge and skills to use the online environment and make appropriate choices.

With reference to real-life scenarios, evaluate these two interventions.

Answers may include:

Intervention 1: Online monitoring (claim)

Advantages of monitoring online behaviour using apps:

• Safety from exposure to inappropriate/offensive/objectionable content and interactions with people that have not been approved by the parent (online predators, etc).
• Monitor interactions between the child’s social groups (e.g., online bullying / transparency).
• Monitor time usage to ensure the child is not spending too much time online.

Disadvantages of monitoring online behaviour using apps:

• Children may not know that their parents monitor their messages and online activities, which can be detrimental to trust and relationships within the family (ethics, values).
• Trust issues from parental control may lead to the child seeking other online avenues behind their parents’ backs. Where does the power lie?
• Children have a right to privacy, which these apps refute and deny (ethics, values).
• Younger children may need to be protected, but teenagers may feel they have a right to exchange messages in confidentiality (transparency) with other people without their parents spying on them.
• The use of apps could involve data being sent to the app developers. which potentially introduces new privacy issues (transparency).
• The apps can be costly.
• Does not prepare the child for later life.

Intervention 2: Developing online knowledge and skills (counter-claim)

Advantages of encouraging the development of online skills (claims supporting the intervention):

• Develops lifelong skills/values that stay with the child into adulthood.
• Promotes trust between parent and child (ethics, values).

Disadvantages of encouraging the development of knowledge and online skills:

• May be inappropriate for younger children, who are not mature enough to make appropriate choices in the complex online environment (acceptability, ethics, values).
• Developing skills/[ethical]values is a learning curve and mistakes may still be made, the consequences of which may be the safety of the child (i.e., online predators/cyberbullying), security (i.e., downloading a virus or malware), or cost (i.e., in-app purchases).
• The online environment is constantly changing, and parents would have to ensure that they are up to date with good safety practices to ensure they are giving the best advice (ethics, values).

In this question it is expected there will be a balance between the terminology related to digital systems and the terminology related to social and ethical impacts.

Keywords: home, online, health, social, family, relationships, trust, advice, software applications, apps, offensive, inappropriate, objectionable, content, change, expression, transparency, identity, power, ethics, values

Refer to HL paper 1 Section B markbands when awarding marks. These can be found under the "Your tests" tab > supplemental materials > Digital society markbands and guidance document.