I've been reading a lot lately about Facebook, MySpace and the like and especially about parents seeking out their kids' sites. Does anyone else think, as I do, that reading what my kids would put on such a site may be more information than I want to know? If one of them went to a party on Saturday night and then later posted a picture of him or herself looking like a bit too much drink had been had, is this something I want to see? I don't think so.
Now, my kids are both of age. And they don't live at home. But it hit me a long time ago that I needed to be careful not to use the web to cyberstalk them. I think it was when Louise first went to college. Out of curiosity, because I was working with the web myself, I searched her college's web site to see what use her professors were making of the web. I found a site for her math class, complete with details about each day's assignments.
For a few days I followed this site, watching to see what assignments were being posted. But then it hit me. Would I have wanted my parents following a class I took so closely? What was I doing it for, anyway - was I going to call Louise and ask her if she'd done her homework? Shouldn't I leave her alone and let her figure out for herself how to make her way through college? No, no, and yes.
I stopped visiting the site. Louise told us later that the professor wanted to post grades - identifying students only by their ID numbers - on the site but she objected on the grounds that we might be watching. Smart girl.
